OR,
MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES.
TRANSLATED,
UNDER THE IMMEDIATE INSPECTION OF THE AUTHOR,
FROM THE LATEST PARIS EDITION,
WITH HIS
NOTES OF ILLUSTRATION.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
THE LAW OF NATURE,
AND
A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE
BY COUNT DARU.'I will go into the desert and dwell among ruins; I will interrogate ancient
monuments on the wisdomn of past times." —CsAP. iv., p. 31.
BOSTON.
PUBLISHED  BY JOSIAH  P. MENDUM,
AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR.
1869.








ADVERTISEMENT
VOLNEY'S RUINS:
OR, MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES
THE superior merits of this work are too well known to require
commendation; but as it is not generally known that there are in
circulation three English translations of it, varying very materially
in regard to faithfulness and elegance of diction, the publisher of
the present edition insert the following extracts for the information
of purchasers and readers:PARIS TRANSLATION,
From which this Edition is printed.
INVOCATION.
HAIL, solitary ruins! holy sepulchres, and silent walls! you I invoke; to
you I address my prayer. While your aspect averts, with secret terror, the
vulgar Tegard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious sentiments-sublime contemplations. What useful lessons! what affecting and profound reflections you suggest to him who knows how to consult you. When the whole
earth in chains and silence, bowed the neck before its tyrants, you had already
proclaimed the truths which they abhor, and confounding the dust of the king
with that of the meanest slave, had announced to man the sacred dogma of
EQUALITY! Within your pale, in solitary adoration of LIBERTY, I saw her
Genius arise from the mansions of the dead; not such as she is painted by the
impassioned multitude, armed with fire and sword, but under the august aspect
of Justice, poising in her hand the sacred balance, wherein are weighed the
actions of men at the gates of eternity.
O Tombs! what virtues are yours! you appal the tyrant's heart, and poison
with secret alarm his impious joys; he flies, with coward step, your incorruptible aspect, and erects afar his throneof insolence.
LONDON TRANSLATION
INVOCATION.
Solitary ruins, sacred tombs, ye mouldering and silent walls, all hail! To
you I address my Invocation. While the vulgar shrink from your aspect with
secret terror, my heart finds in the contemplation a thousand delicious sentiments, a thousand admirable recollections. Pregnant, I may truly call you,
with useful lessons, with pathetic and irresistible advice to the man who
knows how to consult you. A while ago the whole world bowed the neck in
silence before the tyrants that oppressed it; and yet in that hopeless moment
you already proclaimed the truths that tyrants hold in abhorrence: mixing the
dust of the proudest kings with that of the meanest slaves, you called upon us
to contemplate this example of EQUALITY. From your caverns, whither the
musing and anxious love of LIBERTY led me, I saw escape its venerable shade,
and with unexpected felicity, direct its flight and marshal my steps the way to
renovated France.




a4                    ADVERTISE.MENT.
Tombs! what virtues and potency do you exhibit! Tyrants tremble at your
aspect-you poison with secret alarm their impious pleasures-they turn from
you with impatience, and, cowardlike, endeavor to forget you amid the sumptuousness of their palaces.
PIILADELPIIIA TRANSLATION.
INVOCATION.
Hail, ye solitary ruins, ye sacred tombs, and silent walls!'Tis your auspl
cious aid that I invoke;'tis to you my soul, wrapt in meditation, pours forth
its prayer! What though the profane and vulgar mind shrinks with dismay
from your august and awe-inspiring aspect; to me ye unfold the sublimest
charms of contemplation and sentiment, and offer to my senses the luxury of a
thousand delicious and enchanting thoughts! How sumptuous the feast to a
being that has a taste to relish, and an understanding to consult you! What
rich and noble admonitions; what exquisite and pathetic lessons do you read
to a heart that is susceptible of exalted feelings! When oppressed humanity
bfnt in timid silence throughout the globe beneath the galling yoke of slavery,
it was you that proclaimed aloud the birthright of those truths which tyrants
tremble at while they detect, and which, by sinking the loftiest hlead of the
proudest potentate, with all his boasted pageantry, to the level of mortality
with his meanest slave, confirmed and ratified by your unerring testimony the
sacred and immortal doctrine of EQUALITY.
Musing within the precincts of your inviting scenes of philosophic solitude,
whither the insatiate love of true-born LIBERTY had led me, I beheld her Genius ascending, not in the spurious character and habit of a blood-thirsty Fury
armed with daggers and instruments of murder, and followed by a frantic and
intoxicated multitude, but under the placid and chaste aspect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the sacred scales in which the actions of
mortals are weighed on the brink of eternity.
0 ye tombs and emblematic images of death! How superlative is your
power! how irresistible your influence! Your presence appais aud chills the
souls of tyrants with electric horror and remorse; the very remembrance of
you haunts their minds like a ghastly spectre in the midst of their voluptuous
enjoyments, and the terror you inspire plants thorns in all their thoughts, and
poisons their impious pleasuies into pains.
The first translation was made and published in London soon
after the appearance of the work in French, and, by a late edition,
is still adopted without alteration. Mr. Volney, when in this country, in 1797, expressed his disapprobation of this translation, alleging that the translator must have been overawed by the  c.vernment or clergy from rendering his ideas faithfully; and acco: -.:ngly
an English gentleman, then in Philadelphia, volunteered to c.o ect
this edition. But by his endeavors to give the true and full mean.
ing of the author with great precision, he has so overloaded his
composition with an exuberance of words, as in a great measure to
dissipate the simple elegance and sublimity of the original.  Mr.
Volney, when he became better acquainted with the English lan.
guage, perceived this defect; and, with the aid of our countryman,
Joel Barlow, made and published in Paris a new, correct, and ele
gant translation, of which the present edition is a faithful and cor
rect copy.




P R E F ACE
OF THE EDITOR.
IF books were to be judged of by their volume, the following would have but little value; if appraised by their
contents, it will perhaps be reckoned among the most instructive.
In general, nothing is more important than a good elementary book; but, also, nothing is more difficult to compose, and even to read: and why?  Because, as everything in it should be analysis and definition, all should be
expressed with truth and precision.  If truth and precision
are wanting, the object has not been attained; if they exist, its very force renders it abstract.
The first of these defects has been hitherto evident in
all books of morality; we find in them only a chaos of incoherent maxims, precepts without causes, and actions
without a motive. The pedants of the human race have
treated it like a little child; they have prescribed to it
good behavior by frightening it with spirits and hobgoblins.
Now that the growth of the human race is rapid, it is time
to speak reason to it; it is time to prove to men that the
springs of their improvement are to be found in their very
organization, in the interest of their passions, and in aP
1*




6               EDITOR'S PREFACE.
that composes their existence. It is time to demonstrate
that morality is a physical and geometrical science, subjected to the rules and calculations of the other mathematical sciences: and such is the advantage of the system
expounded in this book, that the basis of morality being
laid in it on the very nature of things, it is both constant
and immutable; whereas, in all other theological systems,
morality being built upon arbitrary opinions, not demonstrable and often absurd, it changes, decays, expires with them,
and leaves men in an absolute depravation. It is true that,
because our system is founded on facts and not on reveries,
it will with much greater difficulty be extended and adopted; but it will derive strength from this very struggle, and
sooner or later the eternal religion of Nature must overturn
the transient religions of the human mind.
This book was published for the first time in 1793, under
the title of " The French Citizen's Catechism." It was at
first intended for a national work; but as it may be equally
well entitled the Catechism of men of sense and honor, it
is to be hoped that it will become a book common to all
Europe. It is possible that its brevity may prevent it from
attaining the object of a popular classical work; but the
author will be satisfied if he has at least the merit of pointng out the way to make a better.




CONTENTS.
Page.
THEe Life of Volney...................... 9
Invocation........................1..........   19
Chap. I.  The Journey................................. 21
II.  Meditation..............................  23
III.  The Apparition...............................  26
IV.  The Exposition..............................             30
V.  Condition of Man in the Universe................   35
VI.  The Primitive State of Man....................  37
VII.  Principles of Society...........................  38
VIII.  Source of the Evils of Societies..................  39
IX.  Origin of Governments and Laws...............  41
X.  General Causes of the Prosperity of Ancient States.  43
XI.  General Causes of the Revolutions and Ruin of Ancient States...............................    46
XII.  Lessons of Times Past repeated on the Present.....  54
XIII.  Will the Human Race improve..................  65
XIV.  The Great Obstacle to Improvement.............  71
XV.  The New Age.................................   74
XVI., A Free and Legislative People..................   78
XVII.  Universal Basis of all Right and all Law.......... 80
XVIII.  Consternation and Conspiracy of Tyrants.........  82
XIX.  General Assembly of the Nations................  84
XX.  The Search of Truth........................... 87
XXI.  Problem of Religious Contradictions.............         96
XXII.  Origin and Filiation of Religious Ideas........... 118
~ I.  Origin of the Idea of God: Worship of the Elements
and of the Physical Powers of Nature..........  122
~ iI.  Second System. Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism.. 124
~ iii.  Third System. Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry.... 128
~ Iv.  Fourth System. Worship of two Principles, or Dualism.....,.......... 138




8                      CONTENTS.
Page.
~ v. Moral and Mystical Worship, or System of a Future
State....................................... 143
~ vI. Sixth System. The Animated World, or Worship of
the Universe under divers Emblems............ 148
~ viz. Seventh System. Worship of the Soul of the World,
that is to say, the Element of Fire, Vital Principle of the Universe.......................... 151
~ viii. Eighth System. The World Machine: Worship of
the Demi-Ourgos, or Grand Artificer..       153
~ Ix. Religion of Moses, or Worship of the Soul of the
World (Youpiter)..............  157
~ x. Religion of Zoroaster.....................  160
~ xI. Brahmism, or Indian System.................... 160
~ xii. Boudhism, or Mystical Systems.................. 161
~ xIII. Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun,
under the cabalistic names of Chris-en or Christ,
and Yesus or Jesus........                   161
XXIII. The Object of all Religions Identical......     170
XXIV. Solution of the Problem of Contradictions........ 180
THE LAW OF NATURE.
C"Ip. I. The Law of Nature......                        185
II. Characters of the Law of Nature............... 187
III. Principles of the Law of Nature with relation to Man 191
IV. Basis of Morality: of Good, of Evil, of Sin, of Crime,
of Vice, and of Virtue.................... 195
V. Of Individual Virtues..................... 197
VI. On Temperance.......................... 199
VII. On Continence.201
1III. On Courage and Activity.................... 204
IX. On Cleanliness.................... 206
X. On Domestic Virtues.... 208
XI. Of the Social Virtues; of Justice............ 211
XII. Development of the Social Virtues........... 214




THE LIFE OF VOLNEY,
BY COUNT DARU.
CONSTANTINE FRANCIS CHASSEBEUF DE VOLNEY was
born in 1757, at Craon, in that intermediate condition of life
which is of all the happiest, since it is disinherited only
of fortune's too dangerous favors, and can aspire at the
social and intellectual advantages reserved for a laudable
ambition.
From INis earliest youth, he devoted himself to the searcl
after truth, without being disheartened by the serious stud.
ies which alone can initiate us into her secrets. After
having become acquainted with the ancient languages, the
natural sciences and history, and being admitted into the
society of the most eminent literary characters, he submitted, at the age of twenty, to an illustrious academy, the
solution of one of the most difficult problems that the history of antiquity has left open to discussion. This attempt
received no encouragement from the learned men who were
appointed his judges; the author's only appeal from their
sentence was to his courage and his efforts.
Soon after, a small inheritance having fallen to his lot,
the difficulty was how to spend it (these are his own words).
He resolved to'employ it in acquiring, by a long voyage, a
new fund of information, and determined to visit Egypt and
Syria. But these countries could not be explored to advantage without a knowledge of the language. Our young
traveller was not to be discouraged by this difficulty. In




10                   THE LIF.E
stead of learning Arabic in Europe, he withdrew to a con.
vent of Copts, until he had made himself master of an
idiom which is spoken by so many nations of the East.
This resolution already betrayed one of those undaunted
spirits that remain unshaken amid the trials of life.
Although, like other travellers, he might have amused us
with the account of his hardships, and the perils surmounted by his courage, he overcame the temptation of interrupting his narrative by personal adventures. He disdained
the beaten track; he does not tell us the road he took, the
accidents he met with, or the impressions he received. He
carefully avoids appearing upon the stage; he is an inhabitant of the country, who has long and well observed it, and
who describes its physical, political, and moral state. The
illusion would be entire, if an old Arab could be supposed
to possess all the erudition, all the European philosophy,
which are found united and in their maturity in a traveller
of twenty-five.
But though a master in all those artifices by which a
narration is rendered interesting, the young man is not to
be discerned in the pomp of labored descriptions; although
possessed of a lively and brilliant imagination, he is never
found unwarily explaining by conjectured systems the physical or moral phenomena which he describes. In his observations he unites prudence with science; with these
two guides, he judges with circumspection, and sometimes
confesses himself unable to account for the effects he has
made known to us.
Thus his account has all the qualities that persuade, accuracy and candor; and when, ten years later, a vast military enterprise transported forty thousand travellers to the
classic ground, which he had trod unattended, unarmed,
and unprotected, they all recognised a sure guide and an
enlightened observer in the writer who seemed to have
preceded them only to remove or point out a part of the
difficulties of the way.




OF VOLNEY.                    11
The unanimous testimony of all parties proved the accu
racy of his account, and the justness of his observation
and his Travels in Egypt and Syria were recommended by
universal suffrage to the gratitude and the confidence of the
public.
Before it had undergone this trial, the work had obtained
in the learned world such a rapid and general success, that
it found its way into Russia. The empress then upon the
throne (in 1787) sent the author a medal, which he received with respect, as a mark of esteem for his talents,
and with gratitude, as a proof of the approbation given to
his principles. But when the empress declared against
France, Volney sent back the honorable present, sayingIf I obtained it from her esteem, I can only preserve her
esteem by returning it.
The revolution of 1789, which had drawn upon France
the menaces of Catharine, had opened to Volney a political career. As deputy in the assembly of the states-general, the first words he uttered there were in favor of the
publicity of their deliberations. He also supported the organization of the national guards and that of the communes
and departments
At the period when the question of the sale of the domain lands was agitated (in 1790), he published an essay,
in which he lays down the following principles' "T'he
force of a state is in proportion to its population; population is in proportion to plenty; plenty is in proportion to
tillage; and tillage, to personal and immediate interestthat is, to the spirit of property.  Whence it follows, that
the nearer the cultivator approaches the passive condition
of a mercenary, the less industry and activity are to be expected from him; and, on the other hand, the nearer he is
to the condition of a free and entire proprietor, the more
extension he gives to his own forces, to the produce of his
lands, and to the general prosperity of the state."
The author draws this conclusion, that a state is so much




12                   THE LIFE
the more powerful as it includes a greater number of pro
prietors; that is, a greater division of property.
Conducted into Corsica by that spirit of observation
which belongs only to men whose information is varied and
extensive, he perceived at the first glance all that could be
done for the improvement of agriculture in that country;
but he knew that, for a'people firmly attached to ancient
customs, there can exist no other demonstration or means
of persuasion than example. He purchased a considerable
estate, and made experiments on all the kinds of tillage
that he hoped to naturalize in that climate: the sugar-cane,
cotton, indigo, and coffee, soon demonstrated the success
of his efforts. This success drew upon him the notice of
the government: he was appointed director of agriculture
and commerce in that island, where, through ignorance, all
new methods are introduced with such difficulty.
It is impossible to calculate all the good that might have
resulted from this peaceable magistracy; and we know
that neither instruction, zeal, nor a persevering courage,
was wanting to him who had undertaken it; of this he
had given convincing proofs. It was in obedience to another sentiment, no less respectable, that he voluntarily interrupted the course of his labors. When his fellow-citizens of Angers appointed him their deputy in the constituent
assembly, he resigned the employment he held under government, upon the principle that no man can represent the
nation and be dependant for a salary upon those by whom
it is administered.
Through respect for the independence of his legislative
functions, he had ceased to occupy the place he possessed
in Corsica before his election; but he had not ceased to
be the benefactor of that country.  He returned thither
after the session of the constituent assembly.  Invited into
that island by the principal inhabitants, who were anxious
to put in practice his lessons, he spent there a part of the
years 1792 and 1793.




OF VOLNEY.                     13
On his return, he published a work entitled " An account
bf the present state of Corsica." This was an act of courage; for it was not a physical description, but a political
review of the condition of a population divided into several
factions, and distracted by violent animosities. Volney
unreservedly revealed the abuses, solicited the interest of
France in favor of the Corsicans, without flattering them,
and boldly denounced their defects and vices; so that the
philosopher obtained the only recompense he could expect
from his sincerity. He was accused by the Corsicans of
heresy.'To prove that he had not merited this reproach, he soon
after published a short treatise, entitled "The law of nature, or physical principles of morality."
He was soon exposed to a much more dangerous charge;
and this, it must be confessed, he did merit. This philosopher, this worthy citizen, who, in our first national assembly, had seconded with his wishes and his talents the
establishment of an order of things which he considered
favorable to the happiness of his country, was accused of
not being sincerely attached to that liberty for which he
had contended; that is to say, of being averse to anarchy.
An imprisonment of ten months, which only ended after
the 9th Thermidor, was a new trial reserved for his courage.
The moment at which he recovered his liberty was that
when the horror inspired by criminal excesses recalled
men to those noble sentiments which fortunately are one
of the first necessaries of civilized life. They sought for
consolations in study and literature, after so many crimes
and misfortunes, and organized a plan of public instruction.
It was, in the first place, necessary to ensure the aptitude of those to whom education should be confided; but
as the systems were various, the best methods and a unity
of doctrine were to be determined. It was not enough to
interrogate the masters; they were to be formed, new ones
2




14                    THE LIFE
were to be created, and, for that purpose, a school was
opened in 1794, wherein the celebrity of the professors
promised new instruction even to the best informed. This
was not, as was objected, beginning the edifice by the roof,
but creating architects who were to superintend all the arts
requisite for the construction of the building.
The more difficult their functions were, the greater care
was to be taken in the choice of the professors; but France,
though then accused of being plunged in barbarism, possessed men of transcendent talents, already enjoying the
esteem of all Europe, and we may be bold to say, that, by
their labors, our literary glory had likewise extended its
conquests. Their names were proclaimed by the public
voice, and Volney's was associated with those of the men
most illustrious in science and in literature.*
This institution, however, did not answer the-expectations that had been formed of it, because the two thousand
students that assembled from all parts of France were not
equally prepared to receive these transcendent lessons, and
because it had not been sufficiently ascertained how far the
theory of education should be kept distinct from education
itself.
Volney's lectures on history, which were attended by an
immense concourse of auditors, became one of his chief
claims to literary glory. When forced to interrupt them,
by the suppression of the Normal school, he might have
reasonably expected to enjoy, in his retirement, that consideration which his recent functions had added to his
name. But, disgusted with the scenes he had witnessed
in his native land, he felt that passion revive within him,
which, in his youth, had led him to visit Africa and Asia.
America, civilized within a century, and free only within a
few years, fixed his attention. There everything was new,
* Lagrange, Laplace, Berthollet, Garat, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,
Daubenton, Hauy, Volney, Sicard, Monge, Thouin, La Harpe, Buache
Mentelle




OFP VOLNEY.                    15
the inhabitants, the constitution, the earth itself. These
were objects worthy of his observation. When embarking, however, for this voyage, he felt emotions very different from those which formerly accompanied him into Turkey. Then in the prime of life, he joyfully bid adieu to a
land where peace and plenty reigned, to travel among barbarians; now, mature in years, but dismayed at the spectacle and experience of injustice and persecution, it was
with diffidence, as we learn from himself, that he went to
implore from a free people an asylum for a sincere friend
of that liberty that had been so profaned.
Our traveller had gone to seek for repose beyond the
seas; he there found himself exposed to aggression from
a celebrated philosopher-Dr. Priestley. Although the subject of this discussion was confined to the investigation of
some speculative opinions published by the French writer
in his work entitled " THE RuINs," the naturalist, in this
attack, employed a degree of violence which added nothing
to the forge of his arguments, and an acrimony of expression not to be expected from a philosopher. M. Volney,
though accused of Hottentotism and ignorance, preserved,
in his defence, all the advantages that the scurrility of his
adversary gave over him. He replied in English, and
Priestley's countrymen could only recognise the Frenchman in the refinement and politeness of his answer.
While M. Volney was travelling in America, there had
been formed in France a literary body, which, under the
name of Institute, had attained in a very few years a distinguished rank among the learned societies of Europe.
The name of the illustrious traveller was inscribed in it at
its formation, and he acquired new rights to the academical
honors conferred on him during his absence, by the publication of his observations on the United States.
These rights were further augmented by the historical
and physiological labors of the Academician: an exalninaLion and justification of Herodotus's chronology, with nu




16                    THE LIFE
merous and profound researches on the history of the most
ancient nations, occupied for a long time him who had observed their monuments and traces in the countries they
inhabited. The trial he had made of the utility of the
oriental languages inspired him with an ardent desire to
propagate the knowledge of them, and to be propagated, he
felt how necessary it was to render it less difficult. In
this view, he conceived the project of applying to the study
of the idioms of Asia, a part of the grammatical notions we
possess concerning the languages of Europe. It only appertains to those conversant with their relations of dissimilitude or conformity, to appreciate the possibility of realizing this system; but already the author has received
the most flattering encouragement, and the most unequivocal suffrage, by the inscription of his name among the
members of the learned and illustrious society founded by
English commerce in the Indian peninsula.
M. Volney developed his system in three works,* which
prove that this idea of uniting nations separated by immense
distances and such various idioms, had never ceased to
occupy him for twenty-five years. Lest those essays, of
the utility of which he was persuaded, should be interrupted
by his death, with the clay-cold hand that corrected his
last work, he drew up a will which institutes a premium
for the prosecution of his labors. Thus he prolonged, beyond the term of a life entirely devoted to letters, the glorious services he had rendered them.
This is not the place, nor does it belong to me, to appreciate the merit of the writings which render Volney's name
illustrious  his name had been inscribed in the list of the
senate, and afterward of the house of peers. The philosopher who had travelled in the four quarters of the world,
and observed their social state, had other titles to his ad"On the Simplification of the Oriental Languages, 1795.".-" The
European Alphabet applied to the Languages of Asia, 1819."-" Hebrew
Simplified, 1820."




OF VOLNEY.                     17
mission into this body, than his literary glory. His public
life, his conduct in the constituent assembly, his independent principles, the nobleness of his sentiments, the wisdom
and fixity of his opinions, had gained him the esteem of
those who can be depended upon, and with whom it is so
agreeable to discuss political interests.
Although no man had a better right to have an opinion,
no one was more tolerant for the opinions of others. In
state assemblies, as well as in academical meetings, the
man whose counsels were so wise voted according to his
conscience, which nothing could bias; but the philosopher
forgot his superiority, to hear, to oppose with moderation,
and to doubt sometimes. The extent and variety of his
information, the force of his reason, the austerity of his
manners, and the noble simplicity of his character, had
procured him illustrious friends in both hemispheres; and
now that this vast erudition is extinct in the tomb,* we may
be allowed at least to predict that he was one of the very
few whose memory shall never die.
He died in Paris, on the 20th of April, 1820.




18               WORKS OF VOLNEY.
A LIST OF THE WORKS PUBLISHED BY COUNT
VOLNEY.
TRAVELS IN EGYPT AND SYRIA during the years 1783, 1784, and
1785: 2 vols. 8vo.-1787.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE TWELVE CENTURIES that preceded the en
trance of Xerxes into Greece.
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TURKISH WAR, in 1788.
THE RUINS, or Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires-1791.
ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT STATE OF CORSICA-1793.
THE LAW OF NATURE, or Physical Principles of Morality-1793
ON THE SIMPLIFICATION OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES-1795.
A LETTER TO DR. PRIESTLEY-1797.
LECTURES ON HISTORY, delivered at the Normal School in the year
3-1800.
ON THE CLIMATE AND SOIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
to which is added an account of Florida, of the French colony of
Scioto, of some Canadian Colonies, and of the Savages —1803.
REPORT MADE TO THE CELTIC ACADEMY ON THE RUSSIAN WORK OF
PROFESSOR PALLAS, entitled "A Comparative Vocabulary of all
the Languages in the World."
THE CHRONOLOGY OF HERODOTUS conformable with his Text —1808
and 1809.
NEW RESEARCHES ON ANCIENT HISTORY, 3 vols. 8vo.-1814.
THE EUROPEAN ALPHABET Applied to the Languages of Asia- -1819.
A HISTORY OF SAMUEL —1819.
HEBREW SINMPLIFIED-1820.




INVOCATION.
IAIL, solitary ruins, holy sepulchres, and silent walls!
you I invoke; to you I address my prayer. While your
aspect averts, with secret terror, the vulgar regard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious sentiments-sublime contemplations. What useful lessons, what affecting
and profound reflections, you suggest to him who knows
how to consult you! When the whole earth, in chains and
silence, b6wed the neck before its tyrants, you had already
proclaimed the truths which they abhor, and confounding
the dust of the king with that of the meanest slave, had announced to man the sacred dogma of EQUALITY. Within
your pale, in solitary adoration of'LIBERTY, I saw her
Genius arise from the mansions of the dead: n'ot such as
she is painted by the impassioned multitude, armed with
fire and sword, but under the august aspect of Justice,
poising in her hand the sacred balance wherein are weighed
the actions of men at the gates of eternity!
O Tombs! what virtues are yours! You appal the tyrant's heart, and poison with secret alarm his impious joys;
he flies, with coward step, your incorruptible aspect, and
erects afar his throne of insolence. You punish the powerful oppressor; you wrest from avarice and extortion their
ill-gotten gold, and you avenge the feeble whom they have
despoiled; you compensate the miseries of the poor by the
anxieties of the rich; you console the wretched, by opening to him a last asylum from distress; and you give to the




20                  INVOCATION.
soul that just equipoise of strength and sensibility whi]lh
constitutes wisdom-the true science of life. Aware that
all must return to you, the wise man loadeth not himself
with the burdens of grandeur and of useless wealth: he
restrains his desires within the limits of justice; yet,
knowing that he must run his destined course of life, he
fills with employment all its hours, and enjoys the comforts
that fortune has allotted him. You thus impose on the im-r
petuous sallies of cupidity a salutary rein! you calm the
feverish ardor of enjoyments which disturb the senses; you
free the soul from the fatiguing conflict of the passions;
elevate it above the paltry interests which torment the
crowd; and surveying, from your commanding position, the
expanse of ages and nations, the mind is only accessible
to the great affection-to the solid ideas, of virtue and of
glory. Ah! when the dream of life is over, what will
then avail all its agitations, if'not one trace of utility remains behind?
O Ruins! to your school I will return!  I will seek
again the calm of your solitudes; and there, far from the
afflicting spectacle of the passions, I will cherish in remembrance the love of man, I will employ myself on the
means of effecting good for him, and build my own happi.
ness on the promotion of his




THE RUINS, &c.
CHAPTER I.
THE JOURNEY.
IN the eleventh year of the reign of Abd-ul-Hamid, son of
Ahmed, emperor of the Turks-when the victorious Russians
seized on the Krimea, and planted their standards on the shore
that leads to ConstantinopleI was tra7elling in the empire of the Ottomans, and through
those provinces which were anciently the kingdoms of Egypt
and Syria.
My whole attention bent on whatever concerns the happiness
of man in a social state, I visited cities and studied the manners
of their inhabitants; entered palaces, and observed the conduct
of those who govern; wandered over the fields, and examined
the condition of those who cultivate them: and nowhere perceiving aught but robbery and devastation, tyranny and wretchedness, my heart was oppressed with sorrow and indignation.
I saw daily on my road fields abandoned, villages deserted,
and cities in ruin; Often I met with ancient monuments, wrecks
of temples, palaces, and fortresses; columns, aqueducts, and
ombs: and this spectacle led me to meditate on times past, and
filled my mind with serious and profound contemplations.
Arrived at Hems, on the banks of the Orontes, and being at
no great distance from Palmyra of the desert, I resolved to see
its celebrated monuments. After three days travelling through
an arid wilderness, having traversed the valley of caves and sepulchres, on issuing into the plain, I was suddenly struck with a
scene of the most stupendous ruins-a countless multitude of




22                     THE RUINS.
superb columns, stretching in avenues beyond the reach of sight.
Among them were magnificent edifices, some entire, others in
ruins. The ground was covered on all sides with fragments of
cornices, capitals, shafts, entablatures, pilasters, all of white
marble, and of the most exquisite workmanship. After a'walk
of three quarters of an hour along these ruins, I entered the
enclosure of a vast edifice, formerly a temple dedicated to the
sun, and accepting the hospitality of some poor Arabian peasants, who had built their huts on the area of the temple, I resolved to stay some days to contemplate, at leisure, the beauty
of so many stupendous works.
Every day I visited some of the monuments which covered
the plain; and one evening, absorbed in reflection, I had advanced to the valley of sepulchres. I ascended the heights
which surround it, and whence the eye commands the whole
group of ruins, and the immensity of the desert. The sun had
just sunk below the horizon; a red border of light still marked
his track behind the distant mountains of Syria; the full-moon
was rising in the east on a blue ground over the plains of the
Euphrates; the sky was clear, the air calm and serene; the
dying lamp of day still softened the horrors of approaching
darkness; the refreshing breeze of night attempered the sultry
emanations from the heated earth; the herdsmen had led the
camels to their stalls; the eye perceived no motion on the dusky
and unifornl plain; profound silence rested on the desert; the
howlings only of the jackal,* and the solemn notes of the bird
of night, were heard at distant intervals. Darkness now increased, and already, through the dusk, I could distinguish
nothing more than the pale fantasies of columns and walls.
The solitude of the place, the tranquillity of the hour, the majesty of the scene, impressed on my mind a religious pensiveness. The aspect of a great city deserted, the memory of times
past, compared with its present state, all elevated my mind to
high contemplations. I sat on the shaft of a column; and
there, my elbow reposing on my knee, and head reclining on
my hand, my eyes fixed, sometimes on the desert, sometimes
on the ruins, I fell into a profound revery.
* A kind of fox that roves only during the night.




THE  RUINS.                        23
CHAPTER II.
MEDITATION.
HERE, said I, here once flourished an opulent city; here was
the seat of a powerful empire.  Yes! these places, now so
desert, were once animated by a living multitude-a busy crowd
circulated in these streets now so solitary. Within these walls,
where a mournful silence reigns, the noise of the arts and shouts
of joy and festivity incessantly resounded; these piles of marble
were regular palaces; these prostrate pillars adorned the majesty of temples; these ruined galleries surrounded public places.
Here a numerous people assembled for the sacred duties of religion, or the anxious cares of their subsistence; here industry,
parent of enjoyments, collected the riches of all climates, and
the purple of Tyre was exchanged for the precious thread of
Serica;* the soft tissues of Kachemiref for the sumptuous tapestry of Lydia; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Arabia; the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule.
And now a mournful skeleton is all that subsists of this powerful city  naught remains of its vast domination, but a doubtful and empty remembrance! To the tumultuous throng which
crowded under these porticoes, has succeeded the solitude of
death. The silence of the tomb is substituted for the bustle of
public places. The opulence of a commercial city is changed
into hideous poverty. The palaces of kings are become a den
of wild beasts; flocks fold on the area of the temple, and unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuary of the gods! Ah! how
has so much glory been eclipsed? How have so many labors
been annihilated? Thus perish the works of men, and thus do
empires and nations disappear!
And the history of former times revived in my mind. I rec* That is, the silk originally derived from the mountainous country
where the great wall terminates, and which appears to have been the
cradle of the Chinese empire, known to the Latins under the name of
Regio Serarum-Serica.
t The shawls which Ezekiel seems to have described, five centurieo
before our era, under the appellation of Choud-choud.




24                     THE RUINS.
ollected those distant ages when many illustrious nations inhab.
ited these countries.  I figured to myself the Assyrian on the
banks of the Tigris, the Kaldean on those of the Euphrates,
the Persian reigning from the Indus to the Mediterranean.  I
enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria, the warlike states of the Philistines, and the
commercial republics of Phoenicia. This Syria, said I, now so
depopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and
abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets.* Everywhere
were seen cultivated fields, frequented roads, and crowded habitations. Ah! what are become of those ages of abundance
and of life? How have so many brilliant creations of human
industry vanished? Where are those ramparts of Nineveh,
those walls of Babylon, those palaces of Persepolis, those temples of Balbeck and of Jerusalem? Where are those fleets of
Tyre, those dock-yards of Arad, those workshops of Sidon, and
that multitude of sailors, of pilots, of merchants, and of soldiers? Where those husbandmen, those harvests, those flocks,
and all the creation of living beings in which the face of the
earth rejoiced? Alas! I have passed over this desolate land!
I have visited the places once the theatre of so much splendor,
and I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation. I sought the
ancient inhabitants and their works, and could only find a faint
trace, like that of the foot of a traveller over the sand. The
temples are fallen, the palaces overthrown, the ports filled up,
the cities destroyed, and the earth, stripped of inhabitants,
seems a dreary burying-place.  Great God! whence proceed
such fatal revolutions? WVhat causes have so altered the fortunes of these countries? Why are so many cities destroyed?
Why has not this ancient population been reproduced and perpetuated?
Thus absorbed in contemplation, a crowd of new reflections
continually poured in upon my mind. Everything, continued
1, confounds my reason, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty. When these countries enjoyed what constitutes the
glory and happiness of man, they were inhabited by an infidel
people: it was the Phoenician, that homicide sacrificer to Mo* According to the calculations of Josephus and Strabo, Syria must
have contained ten millions of inhabitants. There are not two at the
prevent day.




THE  RUINS.                       25
loch, who gathered into his stores the riches of all climates; it
was the Kaldean, prostrate before a serpent,* who subjugated
opulent cities, and despoiled the palaces of kings and the temples of the gods; it was the Persian, adorer of fire, who received
the tribute of a hundred nations; it was the inhabitant of this
very city, worshipper of the sun and stars, who erected so many
monuments of prosperity and luxury. Numerous flocks, fertile fields, abundant harvests, whatsoever should be the reward
of piety, was in the hands of these idolaters: and now, when a
people of saints and believers occupy these fields, all is become
sterility and solitude. The earth, under these holy hands, produces only thorns and briers. Man sows in anguish, and reaps
only vexation and tears; war, famine, pestilence, assail him in
turn. Yet, are not these the children of the prophets?-the
Mussulman, Christian, Jew-are they not the elect children of
God, loaded with favors and miracles? Why, then, do these
privileged races no longer enjoy the same advantages? Why
are these fields, sanctified by the blood of martyrs, deprived of
their ancient benefits?  Why have those blessings been banished hence, and transferred for so many ages to other nations
and different climes I?
At these words, revolving in my mind the course of vicissitudes which have transmitted the sceptre of the world successively to people so different in religion and manners, from those
of ancient Asia to the most recent of Europe, this name of a
natal land revived in me the sentiment of my country: and
turning my eyes toward her, I began to reflect on the situation
in which I left her.f
I called to mind her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so
sumptuously constructed, her cities inhabited by a countless
people, her fleets spread over every sea, her ports filled-with the
produce of either India; and comparing with the activity of her
commerce, the extent of her navigation, the magnificence of
her monuments, the arts and industry of her inhabitants, what
Egypt and Syria had.once possessed, I was gratified to find in
modern Europe the departed splendor of Asia: but the charm
of my revery was soon dissolved by a last term of comparison.
Reflecting that such had once been the activity of the places I
* The dragon Bel.
t In 1'782, at the close of the American war.
3




26                    THE RUINS.
was then contemplating-Who knows, said I, but such may
one day be the abandonment of our countries? Who knows
if, on the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder-Zee,
where now, in the tumult of so many enjoyments, the heart and
the eye suffice not for the multitude of sensations-who knows
if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day sit on their silent ruins, and weep in solitude over the ashes of their inhabitants and the memory of their greatness?
At these words, my eyes filled with tears; and, covering my
head with the fold of my garment, 1 sunk into gloomy meditations on human affairs. Ah! hapless man, said I, in my grief,
a blind fatality sports with thy destiny! A fatal necessity rules
with the hand of chance the lot of mortals! But no: it is the
justice of Heaven fulfilling its decrees!  A mysterious God
exercising his incomprehensible judgments! Doubtless he has
pronounced a secret anathema against this land-blasting with
maledictions the present for the sins of the past generations.
Oh! who shall dare to fathom the depths of the Divinity?*
And I remained motionless, plunged in profound melancholy.
CHAPTER III.
THE APPARITION.
MEANrWHILE a noise struck my ear-like to the agitation of a
flowing robe, or of slow footsteps on dry and rustling grass.
Startled, I opened my mantle, and casting around a timid glance,
suddenly on my left, by the glimmering light of the moon
through the columns and ruins of a neighboring temple, I
thought I saw a pale apparition, clothed in large and flowing
robes, as spectres are represented rising from their tombs.. I
shuddered: and while agitated and hesitating whether to fly or
to ascertain the object, a deep voice, in solemn accents, pronounced these words:I Fatality is the universal and rooted prejudice of the East: It was
written, is there the answer to everything: hence result an unconcern
and apathy the most powerful impediments to instruction and civilization.




TH IE  RUIN'S.                    27
"How long will man importune Heaven with unjust complaint? How long, with vain clamors, will he accuse FATE as
the' author of his calamities?  Will he, then, never open his
ees -to the light, and'his heart -to the insinuations of truth and
sason'? The light of truth meets him everywhere; yet he
sees it not! The voice of reason strikes his ear, and he hears
it not! Unjust man! if for a inoment you can suspend the delusin'which -fascinates your senses-if your heart can compre-,hend the language of reason, interrogate these ruins! Read
-the lessons which -they present to you!-And you, witnesses`of twenty different centuries, holy temples! venerable tombs!
waills once -so glorious!-appear in the cause of nature herself!
Approach the tribunal of sound xreason, and bear testimony
against unjust accusations!.Come and confound the declama~tions of a'false wisdom or hypocritical piety, and avenge the
heavens and -the earth of man who calumniates them!
"' What is that blind fatality, which, without order and without law, sports with the destiny of mortals?  What is that unjust necessity, which confounds the effect of actions, whether
of wisdom or of folly? In what consist those anathemas of
Heaven over this land? Where is that divine malediction which
perpetuates the abandonment of these fields? Say, monuments
of past ages! have the heavens changed their'laws, and the
earth its motion? Are the fires of the -sun extinct in the regions
of space? Do the seas no longer emit their vapors? Are the
rains and the dews suspended in the air? Do the mountains
withhold their springs? Are the streams dried up? and do the
plants no longer bear fruit and seed? Answer, generation of
falsehood and iniquity! Has God deranged the primitive and
settled order of things which he himself assigned to nature?
Has heaven denied to earth, and earth to its inhabitants, the
blessings which once they proffered?  If nothing has changed
in the creation-if the same means exist now which existed before, why, then, are not the present what former generations
were? Ah! it is falsely thatyou accuse fate and Heaven! 1t
is injuriously that you refer to God the cause of your evils!
Say, perverse and hypocritical race! if these places are desolate-if powerful cities are reduced to solitude-is it God who,has caused their ruin? Is it his bhand which has overthrown
these walls, destroyed these temples, mutilated these columns




28                     THE  RUINS.
or is it the hand of man?  Is it the arm of God which has carried the sword into your cities, and fire into your fields, which
has slaughtered the people, burned the harvests, rooted up trees,
and ravaged the pastures, or is it the hand of man? And when,
after the destruction of crops, famine has ensued, is it the vengeance of God which has produced it, or the mad fury of mortals?  When, sinking under famine, the people have fed on
impure alimnents, if pestilence ensues, is it the wrath of God
which sends it, or the folly of man?  When war, famine, and
pestilence, have swept away the inhabitants-if the earth remains a desert, is it God who has depopulated it? Is it his
rapacity which robs the husbandman, ravages the fruitful fields,
and wastes the earth, or is it the rapacity of those who govern?
is it his pride which excites murderous wars, or the pride of
kings and their ministers? Is it the venality of his decisions
which overthrows the fortunes of families, or the corruption of
the organs of the law? Are they his passions which, under a
thousand forms, torment individuals and nations, or are they the
passions of man? And if, in the anguish of their tniseries, they
see not the remedies, is it the ignorance of God which is to
blame, or their ignorance? Cease, then, mortals, to accuse the
decrees of FATE, or the judgments of the Divinity! If God
is good, will he be the author of your misery? If he is just,
will he be the accomplice of your crimes? No! the caprice
of which man complains is not the caprice of destiny; the darkness that misleads his reason is not the darkness of God; the
source of his calamities is not in the distant heavens: it is
beside him on the earth; it is not concealed in the bosom of
the divinity; it resides in man himself; he bears it in his own
heart.
a" You murmur and say, How have an infidel people enjoyed
the blessings of Heaven and earth? Why is a holy and chosen
race less fortunate than impious generations? Deluded man!
where, then, is the contradiction which offends you?  Where
is the inconsistency which you impute to the justice of Heaven?  Take into your own hands the balance of rewards and
punishments-of causes and effects.  Say, when those infidels
observed the laws of the heavens and of the earth-when they
regulated their intelligent labors by the order of the seasons and
course of the stars, ought God to have troubled the equilibrium




THE RUINS.                        29
of the universe to defeat their prudence? When their hands
cultivated these fields with toil and care, should he have diverted the course of the rains, suspended the fertilizing dews,
and caused thorns to spring up? When, to render these arid
fields productive, their industry constructed aqueducts, dug canals, and led; the distant waters across the desert, should he
have dried up their sources in the mountains? Should he have
blasted the harvests which art had created, wasted the plains
which peace had peopled, overthrown cities which'labor had
caused to flourish, disturbed, in fine, the order established by
the wisdom of man? And what is that infidelity, which founded empires by prudence, defended them by valor, and strengthened them by justice; which erected powerful cities, formnet
capacious ports, drained pestilential marshes, covered the sea
with ships, the earth with inhabitants, and, like the creative
spirit, diffused life and motion through the world? If such be
infidelity, what, then, is the true faith? Does sanctity consist
in destruction? The God who peoples the air with birds, the
earth with animals, the waters with fishes-the God who animates all nature: is he, then, a God of ruins and tombs? Does
he ask devastation for homage, and conflagration for sacrifice?
Requires he groans for hymns, murderers for votaries, a rav
aged and desert earth for his temple? Yet such, holy and believing people, are your works! These are the fruits of your
piety! You have massacred the people, burnt their cities, destroXed cultivation, reduced the earth to a solitude: and you
ask the reward of your works! Miracles, then, must be performed, the laborers whom you cut off must be recalled to life,
the walls re-edified which. you have overthrown, the harvests
reproduced which you have destroyed, the waters gathered together which you have dispersed-the laws, in fine, of Heaven
and earth reversed: those laws established by God himself, in
demonstration of his magnificence and wisdom; those eternal
laws anterior to all codes, to all the prophets; those immutable
laws, which neither the passions nor the ignorance of man can
pervert: but that passion which mistakes, that ignorance which
observes not causes, and predicts no effect, has said, in the folly
of her heart-' Everything comes from chance; a blind fatality
dispenses good and evil on the earth, so that prudence and wisdom can not guard against it.' Or else, assuming the language
3*




30                    THeE RUINS.
of hypocrisy, she has said-' A.1 things are from God; he taker
pleasure in deceiving. wisdom. and confounding reason;...'
and ignorance, applauding herself in her malice, has, said —-',Thus I shall not. be, inferior to that science which I detest; I
will render useless that prudence which fatigues and tormeats
me;' and cupidity has added. —-' 1  ill oppress the weak aun
devour the fruits of his, labors; and I will say, It is God, who
decreed and Fate who, ordained it so.'-But I! I swear by the
taws of heaven and earth, and by the law which is written in
the heart of man, the hypocrite shall be deceived in his guile —
the oppressor in his rapacity: the sun shall change his course,
before folly shall prevail over wisdom and knowledge, or stupidity surpass. prudence in the delicate and sublime art of procuring to man his true enjoyments, and of building his happiness
on a solid foundation!"
CHAPTER IV.
THE EXPOSITION.
THus spoke the Phantom.  Astonished at his discourse, and
my heart agitated with different reflections, I was for some time
silent. At length, taking courage, I thus addressed him: —
11 0 Genius of tombs and ruins! your presence, your severity,
have disordered my senses; but the justness, of your reasoning
restores confidence to my soul. Pardon my ignorance. Alas l
if man is blind, can, that which constitutes his torment be also
his crime?  I may have mistaken the voice of reason; but
never knowingly have I rejected her authority. Ah! if you
read in my heart, you know with what sincerity, with what enthusiasm, it seeks truth. And is it not in pursuit of her that
you see me in this sequestered spot? Alas! I have wandered
over the earth-I have visited cities and countries; and seeing
everywhere misery and desolation, a sense of the evils which
oppress my fellow-men have deeply afflicted my soul. I have
aid with a sigh, Is man, then, born but for sorrow and anguish 3




THE  RUINS.                      21
AndlI have meditated upon human miseries, that I might find
out their remedy. I have said, I will separate myself from corrupt societies; I will retire far from palaces where the mind is
depraved by satiety, and from the hovel where it is debased by
misery. I will go into the desert and dwell among ruins; I
will interrogate ancient monuments on the wisdom of past
times; I will invoke from the bosom of the tom.bs the spirit
which once in Asia gave splendor to states, and glory to nations. I will ask of the ashes of legislators, by what secret
causes do empires rise and fall; from  what sources spring
the prosperity and misfortunes of nations; on what principles can the peace of society and the happiness of man be
established."
I ceased, and awaited in submissive silence the reply of the
Genius. "Peace and happiness," said he, ",~ttend on him who
practises justice! Young man! since your heart searches after
truth with sincerity, since you can still recognise her through
the mist of prejudice, your prayer shall not be vain: I will unfold to your view that truth you invoke; I will teach your reason that wisdom you are in search of; I will reveal to you the
wisdom of the tombs and the science of ages." Then approaching, and laying his hand on my head, "Rise, mortal," said he,
*" and extricate thy senses from the dust in which thou movest."
Suddenly a celestial flame seemed to dissolve the bands which
fix us to the earth, and, like a light vapor, borne up on the wings
of the Genius, I felt myself wafted to the regions above. Thence,
from the aerial heights, looking down on the earth, I beheld a
scene entirely new. Under my feet. floating in the void, a globe,
like that of the moon, but smaller and less luminous, presented
to me one of its phases; and that phase had the aspect of a
disk, variegated with large spots, some white and nebulous,
others brown, green, or gray; and while I strained my sight to
distinguish what were these spots, " Disciple of Truth," said
the Genius, 1" do you know that object?"
"0 Genius!" answered I, "if I did not see the moon in
another quarter of the heavens, I should have supposed that
to be her globe; it has the appearance of that planet, seen
through the telescope during the obscuration of an eclipse;
these variegated spots might be mistaken for seas and continents."




32                      T}:THE  RUINS.
" They are seas and continents," said he, 1" and those of the
very hemisphere you inhabit."
"What!" said I, " is that the earth, the habitation of man?"
"Yes," replied he; " that dusky space, which occupies irregularly a great portion of the disk, and envelops it almost on every side, is what you call the great ocean, which, advancing
from the south pole toward the equator, forms first the great
gulf of India and Africa, then extends eastward across the
Malay islands to the confines of Tartary, while toward the west
it encircles the continents of Africa and Europe, even to the
north of Asia.
i" That square peninsula under our feet is the arid country of
the Arabs; the great continent on its left, almost as naked in its
interior, with a little verdure only toward its borders, is the
parched soil inhablted by the black men.*  To the north, beyond a long, narrow, and irregular sea,f are the countries of
Europe, rich in meadows and cultivated fields; on its right,
from the Caspian, extend the snowy and naked plains of Tartary. Returning again this way, that white space is the vast
and dreary desert of Cobi, which separates China from the rest
of the world. You see that empire in the furrowed plain, which
seems by a sudden obliquity to escape from the view. On yonder coasts, those narrow necks of land and scattered points are
the peninsulas and islands of the Malays, the wretched possessors of the spices and perfumes. That triangle, which advances so far into the sea, is the too-famous peninsula of India.*
You see the winding course of the Ganges, the rough mountains of Tibet, the lovely valley of Kachemire, the briny deserts
of Persia, the banks of the Euphrates and Tygris, the deep bed
of the Jordan, and the canals of the solitary Nile-"
"0 O Genius!" said- I, interrupting him, "the sight of a mortal
reaches not to objects at such a distance." Immediately he
touched my eyes, and they became piercing as those of an
Africa.                   t The Mediterranean.
What real advantage does the commerce of India. composed entirely
of articles of luxury, procure to the mass of a nation? What are its effects, unless to export, by a marine expense in men, objects of necessity
and utility, and to import useless commodities, which only serve to mark
more strongly the difference between the rich and poor; and what a mass
of superstition has not India added to the general superstition.




THE  RUINS.                         33
eagle; nevertheless the rivers still appeared like waving lines,
the mountains winding furrows, and the cities little compart —
inents, like the squares of a chessboard.
And the Genius, proceeding to point out the objects to me:
"Those piles," said he, "which you see in that narrow valley,
watered by the Nile, are the skeletons of opulent cities, the pride
of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia: behold Thebes, with her
hundred palaces,* that first metropolis of the arts and sciences,
the mysterious cradle of so many opinions which still govern
man without his knowledge.  Lower down, those quadrangular
blocks are the pyramids, whose masses have astonished you;
farther on, the coast, hemmed in between the sea and a narrow
ridge of mountains, was the habitation of the Phoenicians; there
stood the powerful cities of Tyre, of Sidon, of Ascalon, of
Gaza, and of Berytus.  This stream of water without an issue
is the river Jordan, and those naked rocks were once the theatre
of events which have resounded through the world. Behold
that desert of Horeb, and that Mount Sinai, where, by means
The French expedition to Egypt has proved that Thebes, divided into
four or five cities, on both banks of the Nile, could not have the hundred
gates mentioned in Homer. (See the second volume of the Commission
of Egypt.) The historian Diodorus Siculus had already shown the cause
of the error, by observing that the oriental word gate signified also a
palace (on account of the public vestibule always at its entrance); and
this author seems to have understood the cause of the Greek tradition,
when he adds: " From Thebes to Memphis, there were along the river
a hundred royal stables, the ruins of which are still to be seen, and which
contained each two hundred horses (for the service of the monarch):"
all these are exactly the same numbers as Homer's. (See Diodoru~ Sicu.
lus, book i., sec. 11, ~ of the first kings of Egypt.) The name of Ethiopians, here applied to the Thebans, is justified by the example of Homer, and by the really black color of that people. The expressions of
Herodotus, when he says that the Egyptians had a black skin and woolly
hair. coinciding with the head of the sphinx of the pyramids, necessarily
induced the author of Travels in Syria to believe that this ancient people
was of negro race; but all the mummies and engraved heads discovered
by the French expedition contradict this idea; and the traveller, yielding
to evidence, has abandoned his opinion, with several others consigned in
a chronological memoir, composed at the age of twenty-two, and which
was erroneously inserted in the Encyclopedia in 4to, 3d vol. of Antiqui
ties.' Experience and study have enabled him to correct many errors, in
a late work published at Paris, in 1814 and 1815,.entitled New Researches
on Ancient History. (See the 3d vol., concerning the Egyptians.)




34                     THE  RUINS.
unknown to the vulgar, a profound and adventurous leader crey
ated institutions whose influence extended to the whole human
race. On that barren shore, which borders it, you see no longer any trace of splendor, yet there was an emporium of riches.
There were those famous'ldumean ports,* whence the fleets
of htcenicia and Judea, coasting the Arabian peninsula, penetrated into the Persian gulf, to seek there the pearls of Hevila,
the gold of Saba and of Ophir. Yes, on that coast of Oman,
and of Bahrain, was the seat of a commerce of luxuries which,
by its fluctuations and revolutions, fixed the destinies of ancient
nations: thither came the spices and precious stones of Ceylon,
the shawls of Kachemire, the diamonds of Golconda, the aimber of the Maldives, the musk of Tibet, the aloes of Cochin, the
apes and peacocks of the Indian continent, the incense of Hadramant, the myrrh, the silver, the gold dust, and ivory of Africa; thence passing, sometimes by the Red sea, on the vessels
of Egypt and Syria, these luxuries nourished successively the
wealth of Thebes, of Sidon, of Memphis, and of Jerusalem;
sometimes, ascending the Tygris and Euphrates, they excited
the activity of the Assyrians, Medes, Kaldeans, and Persians;
and that wealth, according to the use or abuse of it, raised or
reversed alternately their domination. To this is to be attributed
the magnificence of Persepolis, whose columns you still perceive; of Ecbatana, whose seven-fold wall exists no more; of
Babylon, now level with the ground; of Nineveh, whose name
is scarce remembered;' of Thapsacus, of Anatho, of Gerra, and
the desolated Palmyra. O names for ever glorious! fields of
renown! illustrious countries! what sublime lessons does youl
aspect offer! what. profound truths are written on the surface
of your soil! remembrances of times past recur to my mind,
places, witnesses of the life of man in so many different ages,
retrace for me the revolutions of his fortune! say, what were
their springs and secret causes! say from what sources he derived success and disgrace! unveil to himself the causes of his
* The cities of Ailah and Atsiom-Gaber, whence the Jews of Solomon,
guided by the Tyrians of IHiram, set out on their voyage to Ophir,. an
unknown place, concerning which a great deal has been written, but which
appears to have left some traces in Ofor, an Arabian district, at the en.
trance of the Persian gulf. (See New Researches, vol. i., and Travels in
Syria, vol. ii.)




THE RUINS.                       35
evils! correct him by the spectacle of his errors! teach him the
wisdom which belongeth to him, and let the experience of past
ages become a mirror of instruction, and a germ of happiness
to present and future generations!"
CHAPTER V.
CONDITION OF MAN IN THE UNIVERSE.
AFTER a short silence, the Genius resumed in these words:
"I have told you already, 0 friend of truth, that man vainly
ascribes his misfortunes to obscure and imaginary agents; in
vain he seeks for mysterious and remote causes of his ills. In
the general order of the universe his condition is, doubtless, subject to inconveniences, and his existence overruled by superior
powers; but those powers are neither the decrees of a blind
fatality, nor the caprices of whimsical and fantastic beings; like
the world, of wlhich he forms a part, man is governed by natural laws, regular in their course, consistent in their effects, immutable in their essence; and those laws, the common source
of good and evil, are not written among the distant stars, or
hidden in mysterious codes; inherent in the nature of terrestrial
beings, interwoven with their existence, they are at all times,
and in all places, present to man; they act upon his senses,
they warn his understanding, and dispense to every action its
reward or punishment. Let man, then, study these laws! let
him comprehend his own nature, and the nature of the beings
that surround him, and he will know the regulators of his destiny, the causes of his evils, and the remedies he ought to
apply.
s "When the secret power which animates the universe formed
the globe of the earth, he implanted in the beings by whom it
is inhabited essential properties, which became the law of their
individual motion, the bound of their reciprocal relations, the
cause of the harmony of the whole; he thereby established a
regular order of causes and effects, of principles and consequences, which, under an appearance of chance, governs the universe, and maintains the equilibrium of the world: thus, he gave




THE  RUINS.
to fire motion and activity; to air, elasticity; weight and den.
sity to matter: he made air lighter than water, metal heavier
than earth, wood less cohesive than steel; he ordered the flame
to ascend, stones to fall, plants to vegetate: man, who was to
be exposed to the action of so many different beings, and whose
frail life was, nevertheless, to be preserved, was endowed with
the faculty of sensation. By this faculty, all action hurtful to
his existence gives him a feeling of pain and evil; and every
favorable action an impression of pleasure and happiness. By
these sensations man, sometimes averted from that which wounds
his senses, sometimes allured toward that which sooths them,
has been obliged to cherish and preserve his own life. Thus,
self-love, the desire of happiness, aversion to pain, are the essentidal and primary laws imposed on man by NATURE herself, the
laws which the directing power, whatever it be, has established
for his government, and which, like those of motion in the physical world, are the simple and fruitful principle of whatever
happens in the moral world.
"' Such, then, is the condition of man: on one side, exposed
to the action of the elements which surround him, he is subject
to many inevitable evils; and if, in this decree, Nature has been
severe, on the other band, just, and even indulgent, she has not
only tempered the evils with equivalent good, she has even enabled him toanugment the good and alleviate the evil; she-seems
to say:' Feeble work of my hands, I owe you nothing, and I
give you life; the world wherein I placed you was not made
for you, yet I grant you the use of it; you will find in it a mixture of good and evil; it is for you to distinguish them, and to
direct your footsteps in the paths of flowers and thorns. Be the
arbiter of your own lot; I put your destiny into your own
hands.' Yes, man is inade the artisan of his own destiny; it is
he who has alternately.,veated the successes or reverses.of his
fortune; and if, on a review of all the pains with which he has
tormented his life, he finds reason to weep over his own weakness or imprudence, yet, considering the beginnings from which
he set out, and the height attained, perhaps he has more reason to presume on his strength, and to pride himself on his
genius.




THE RUINS.                      37
CHAPTER VI.
THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN.
"AT first, formed naked both in body and mind, man found
nimself thrown, as it were by chance, on a confused and savage
land; an orphan, abandoned by the unknown power that produced him, he saw no supernatural beings at hand to warn him
of those wants which arise only from his senses, or to instruct
nim in those duties which spring only from his wants. Like
to other animals, without experience of the past, without foresight of the future, he wandered in the depth of the forest,
guided only and governed by the affections of his nature; by
the pain of hunger he was led to seek food, and provide for his
subsistence; by the inclemency of the air be was urged to cover
his body, and he made him clothes; by the attraction of a powe.rful pleasure he approached a fellow-being, and he perpetuated
his race.
" Thus the impressions which he received from every object,
awakening his faculties, developed, by degrees, his understanding, and began to instruct his profound ignorance; his wants
excited industry, dangers formed his courage; he learned to
distinguish useful from noxious plants, to combat the elements,
to pursue his prey, to defend his life; and he thus alleviated its
miseries.
" Thus self-love, aversion to pain, the desire of happiness, were
the simple and powerful incentives which drew man from the
savage and barbarous state in which nature had placed him;
and now, when his life is replete with enjoyments, when he
may count every day by the comforts it brings, he may applaud
himself, and say:' It is I who have prodqced the blessings that
encompass me; it is I who am the fabricator of my own felicity; a safe dwelling, convenient clothing, wholesome and abundant nourishment, smiling fields, fertile hills, populous empires,
all is my work; without me, this earth, given up to disorder,
would have been but a filthy fen, a savage forest, and a hideous
desert.'  Yes, creative man, receive my homage! thou hast
measured the expanse of the heavens, calculated the volume of
4




38                    THE RUINS.
the stars, arrested the lightning in its clouds, subdued seas and
storms, subjected all the elements. Ah! how are so many sublime energies allied to so many errors!
CHAPTER VII.
PRINCIPLES OF SOCIETY.
" WANDERING in woods, and on the banks of rivers, in pursuit
of game and fish, the first men, beset with dangers, assailed by
enemies, tormented by hunger, by reptiles and ravenous beasts,
felt their own individual weakness; and impelled by a common
need of safety, and a reciprocal sentiment of like evils, they
united their resources and their strength; and when one incurred a danger, many aided and relieved him; when one wanted
subsistence, another shared his prey with him; thus men associated to secure their existence, to augment their powers, to
protect their enjoyments; and self-love became the principle of
society.
"Instructed afterward by the experience of various and repeated accidents, by the fatigues of a wandering life, by the distress
of frequent scarcity, men reasoned with themselves, and said:' Why weary ourselves in search of the scattered fruits which
a parsimonious soil affords? why exhaust ourselves in pursuing
prey which eludes us in the woods or waters? why not collect
under our hands the animals that nourish us? why not apply
our cares to multiply and preserve them? We will feed on
their increase, be clothed in their skins, and live exempt from
the fatigues of the day, and solicitude for the morrow.' Ahd
men, aiding one another, seized the nimble goat, the timid
sheep; they tamed the patient camel, the ferocious bull, the
impetuous horse; and, applauding their own industry, they sat
down in the joy of their souls, and began to taste repose and
comfort; and self-love, the principle of all reasoning, became
the instigator to every art, and every enjoyment.
" When men could thus pass their days in leisure, and the
communication of their ideas, they began to contemplate the




THE: RUINS                        39
earth, the heavens, and their own existence, as objects of curiosity and reflection; they remarked the course of the seasons,
the action of the elements, the properties of fruits and plants,
and applied their thoughts to the multiplication of their enjoyments. And in some countries, having observed that certain
seeds contained a whlolesome nourishment in a small volume,
convenient for transportation and preservation, they imitated the
process of nature; they confided to the earth rice, barley, and
wheat, which multiplied so as to answer their most sanguine
hopes: and having found the means of obtaining within a small
compass, and without removal, plentiful subsistence and durable stores, they prepared for themselves fixed habitations; they
constructed houses, villages, and towns; formed societies and
nations; and self-love produced all the developments of genius
and of power.
" Thus, by the sole aid of his faculties, man has been able to
raise himself to the astonishing height of his present fortune.
Too happy if, observing scrupulously the law of his being, he
had faithfully fulfilled its only and true object! But, by a fatal
imprudence, sometimes mistaking, sometimes transgressing its
limits, he has launched forth into a labyrinth of errors and misfortunes; and self-love, sometimes unruly, sometimes blind, became an abundant source of calamities.
CHAPTER
SOURCE OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY.
" IN truth, scarcely were the faculties of men developed, when,
inveigled by the attraction of objects which gratify the senses,
they gave themselves up to inordinate desires. The sweet sensations which NATURE had attached to their real wants, to endear to them  their existence, no longer satisfied them.  Not
content with the fruits offered by the earth, or produced by
industry, they wished to accumulate enjoyments, and coveted
those possessed by their fellow-men; and the strong man rose
up against the feeble, to take from him the profit of his labor;




40                    THE RUINS.
the feeble invoked another feeble one to repel the violence: and
two strong ones then said: "Why'fatigue ourselves to prqduqe
e-;oyments which we may find in the hands of the weak?  Let
us join and despoil them;, they shall labor for us, and we will
enjoy without labor."  And the strong associating for oppresiqpn, and the weak for resistance, men rmutually afflicted each
9th4ex; and a general and fatal discord spread over the earth, ir
which the passions, assuming a thousand new forms, have nevex
ceased to generate a continued series of calamities.
"Thus the same self-love which, moderatp and prudent, was a
principle of happiness and perfection, becoming blind and disordinate, was transformed into a corrupting poison; and cupidity, offspring and companion of ignorance, became the cause
of all the evils which have desolated the earth.
"Yes, IGINORANc}E and CUPIDITY! these are the twin sources
of all that torments the existence of man! Biased by these
into false ideas of happiness, he has mistaken or infringed the
laws of nature in his own relations with external objects, and
injuring his existence, he has violated individual morality;
shutting through these his heart to compassion, and his mind
to justice, he has persecuted and afflicted his eqtual, and violated
social morality. Through ignorance and cupidity nman has
armed against man, family against family, tribe against tribe,
and the earth is become a theatre of blood, of discord, and of
rapine. By ignorance and cupidity, a secret war, fermenting
in the bosom of every state, has separated citizen from citizen;
and the same society is constituted of oppressors and oppressed,
of masters and slaves: by these, the heads of a nation, sometimes insolent and audacious, have forged its chains within its
own bowels, and mercenary avarice has founded political despotism: sometimes hypocritical and deceitful, they have called
from Heaven a lying power, and a sacrilegious yoke; and credulous cupidity has founded religious despotism: by these, in
fine, have been perverted the ideas of good and evil, just and
unjust, vice and virtue; and nations have wandered in a labyrinth of errors and calamities. The cupidity of man, and his
ignorance. these are the evil genii that have laid waste the
earth! These are the decrees of fate which have overthrown
empires! These are the celestial anathemas which have smitten these walls, once so glorious, and converted the splendor of




THE  RUINS.                      41
a populous city into a solitude of mourning and of ruins! But
as in the bosom of man have sprung all the evils which afflict
his life, there also he is to seek and to find a remedy for them.
CHAPTER IX.
ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENTS AND LAWS.
6" IN fact, the period soon arrived when men, tired of the evils
they occasioned each other, began to sigh for peace; and, reflecting on the nature of their misfortunes, they said:'We
mutually injure each other by our passions, and, from a desire
to grasp everything, we in reality possess nothing; what one
seizes to-day, another robs to-morrow, and our cupidity reacts
upon ourselves. Let us establish arb.itrators to judge our claims,
and settle our differences. When the strong rises up against
the weak, the arbitrator shall restrain him, and dispose of our
force to suppress violence; and the life and property of each
shall be under the guaranty and protection of all, and all shall
enjoy the blessings of nature.'
" Conventionswere thus formed in society, sometimes express,
sometimes tacit, which became the rule of the actions of individuals, the measure of their rights, the law of their reciprocal
relations; and persons were appointed to superintend their observance, and to these the people confided the balance of rights,
and the sword to punish transgressions.
"Then was established among individuals a happy equilibrium
of force and action, which constituted the common security.
The name of equity and of justice was recognised and revered
over the earth; every man, assured of enjoying in peace the
fruits of his toil, exerted all the energies of his soul; and industry, excited and maintained by the reality or the hope of enjoyment, developed all the treasures of nature and of art: the
fields were covered with harvests, the valleys with flocks, the
hills with fruits, the sea with vessels, and man was happy and
powerful upon the earth.
"Thus did his own wisdom repair the disorder which his im4*




42                    THE RUINS.
prudence had occasioned; and that. wisdom was, only the, efifect
of his. own organization. It was to secure his own enjoyments that he respected those of others; and cupidity found its
corrective in an enlightened self-love.
" Thus the love of self, the moving principle of every individual, became the necessary basis of every association; and on
the observance of this natural law depended the fate of nations.
Have the factitious and conventional laws, tended to that object.
and accomplished its aim?  Every man, impelled by a powerful instinct, has displayed all. the faculties of his, being; and the
sum of individual felicities has constituted the general felicity.
Have these laws, on the -contrary, impeded the effort of man
toward his happiness?- His heart, deprived of its exciting principle, has languished in inaction, and from the discouragement
of the individual has proceeded the weakness of the, state.
"As self-love, impetuous and improvident, is ever urging man
against his equal, and consequently tends to dissolve society,
the art of legislation and the merit of administrators consists in
attempering the. conflict of individual cupidities, in maintaining
an equilibrium of powers, and securing to every one his happiness, in order that, in the shock of society against society, all
the members may have a common interest in the preservation
and defence of the public weal.
1" Therefore, the internal splendor and prosperity of empires
were owing to the equity of their laws and government; and
their relative external powers have been in proportion to the
number of individuals interested, and to the degree of their in
terest in the public weal.
"On the other hand, the multiplication of men, by complic.ating their relations, having rendered the precise limitation of
their rights difficult-the perpetual play of their passions having produced unforeseen incidents-their conventions having
been vicious, inadequate, or nugatory-in fine, the authors of
thae laws having sometimes mistaken, sometimes disguised their
object, and their ministers, instead of restraining the cupidity
of others, having been hurried away by their own: all these
causos have introduced disorder and trouble into societies; and
vicious laws and unjust governments, the result of cupidity and
ignorance, have caused the misfortunes of nations and the subversion of states.




THE RUINS.                       43
CHUAPTER X.
OIRERRAL CAUSES O)F THE PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT STATES.
" Sucul, O youth, who seekest wisdom, have been the. causes of
revolution in the ancient states, of which thou. contemplatest the
ruins! To whatever spot I direct my view, to whatever period
wy thoughts recur, the same principles of g.owth Or de-truc
tion, of rise or fall, present themselves to my mind. Wherever
a people is powerful, or an empire prosperous, there the cont
ventional laws are comformable with the laws of nature.: the
government there procures for its citizens a free use of thei!
faculties, equal security for their persons and property. If, on
the contrary, an empire goes to ruin, or dissolves, it is because
its laws have been vicious, or imperfect, or trodden undqr foqt
by q corrupt government.  If the laws and. government, at fi4 s
wise and just, degenerate afterward, it is because the alternatioq
of good and evil derives from the nature of the heart of man, the
succession of'.is propensities, his, progress in knowledge, and
the combination of circumstances and events, as is proved by
the history of the human species.
"In the infancy of nations, when men yet lived in, the forest,
subject to the same wants, endowed with the same faculties, all
were nearly equal in strength; and that equality was a circumstance highly advantageous in the composition of society: eery individual thus finding himself sufficiently independent of
every other, no one was the slave, and no one thought of being
the master of another. Untaught man knew neither servitude
nor tyranny; furnished with resources sufficient for his, existence, he thought not of borrowing from others. Owing nothing, exacting nothing, he judged the rights of others by his own,
ud acquired precise notions of justice. Ignorant, moreover, in
the art of enjoyments, unable to produce more than his necessaries, possessing nothing superfluous, cupidity lay dormant; or
if excited, man, attacked in his real wants, resisted it with enorgy, and the very foresight of such resistance maintained a salUtary equilibrium.
"1Thus original equality, without a compact, secured persosal




44                    THE  RUINS.
liberty, respect for property, morality, and good order.  Every
man labored by lhimself and for himself; and his heart being occupied, wandered not to culpable desires; his enjoyments were
few, but his wants were satisfied, and, as indulgent nature had
made tliem less than his resources, the labor of his hands soon
produced abundance-abundance population; the arts developed
themselves, cultivation extended, and the earth, covered with
numerous inhabitants, was divided into different domains.
"The relations of men becoming complicated, the internal order of societies was more difficult to maintain. Time and industry having created affluence, cupidity became more vigilant,
and because equality, practicable among individuals, could not
subsist among families, the natural equilibrium was broken. It
became necessary to substitute a factitious equilibrium in its
place-to appoint rulers, to establish laws; and in the primitive
inexperience, it necessarily happened that these laws, occasioned by cupidity, assumed its character. But different circumstances concurred to correct the disorder, and impose on
governments the necessity of being just.'" States, in fact, being weak at first, and having foreign enemies
to fear, the chiefs found it their interest not to oppress their
subjects; for, by lessening the confidence of the citizens in their
government, they would diminish their means of resistancethey would facilitate foreign invasion, and, for superfluous en.
joyinents, endanger their very existence.
i" In the interior, the character of the people was repugnant to
tyranny: men had contracted too long habits of independence;
they had too few wants, and too great a consciousness of their
own strength.
" States being of small extent, it was difficult to divide their
citizens so as to oppress some by means of others: their cominunications were too easy, and their interests too simple and
evident. Besides, every man being at once proprietor and cultivator, no one was induced to sell himself, and the despot could
find no mercenaries.,"If dissensions arose, they were between family and family,
faction and faction, and they interested a great number. The
troubles indeed were warmer, but fears from abroad pacified
discord. If the oppression of a party prevailed, the earth being
still unoccupied, and man, still in a state of simplicity, finding




THE RUINS.                       45
everywhere the same advantages, the injured party emigrated,
and carried elsewhere,their independence.
" The ancient states then enjoyed within themselves numerous
means of prosperity and power. Every man finding his own
well-being in the constitution of his country, took a lively interest in its preservation.  If a stranger attacked it, having to defend his field, his house, he carried into combat all the animosity of a personal quarrel, and, devoted to his own interests, he
was devoted to his country.
"As every action useful to the public attracted its esteem and
gratitude, every one was eager to be useful, and self-love multiplied talents and civic virtues.
" Every citizen contributing equally by his goods and his per-,on, armies and funds were inexhaustible, and nations displayed
formidable masses of power.
i" The earth being free, and its possession secure and easy,
every man was a proprietor; and the division of property preserved morals, and rendered luxury impossible.
" Every one cultivating for himself, culture was more active
produce more abundant, and individual opulence constituted
public wealth.
"' The abundance of produce rendering subsistence easy, population was rapid and numerous, and states attained quickly the
term of their plenitude.
"Productions increasing beyond consumption, the necessity of commerce was felt, and exchanges took place between
people and people, which augmented their activity and reciprocal advantages.
" In fine, certain countries, at certain times, uniting the advantages of good government with a position on the route of the
most active circulation, they became emporiums of flourishing
commerce, and seats of powerful domination. And on the banks
of the Nile and Mediterranean, of the Tygris and Euphrates, the
accumulated riches of India and of Europe raised in successive
splendor a hundred metropolises.
"The people, growing rich, applied their superfluity to works
of common and public use; and this was, in every state, the
epoch of.those works whSse grandeur astonishes the mind; of
those wells of Tyrb, of those dikes of the Euphrates, of those
subterranean conduits of Media, of those fortresses of the des



TTiE  RUINS.
ert, of those aqueducts of Palmyra, of those temples, th6se por
ticoes.* And such labors might be itnrnens, without oppressing
the nations, because they were the effect of an equal and common contribution of the force of men animated and free.
"Thus ancient states prospered, because their social institutions were conformable to -the true laws of nature, and because
rmen, enjoying liberty and security for their persons and their
property, could display all the extent:of their faculties, all the
energies of their self-love.
CHAPTER XI.
GENERAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN:OF ANCIENT
STATES.
" CUPIDITY had, nevertheless, excited among men a constant
and universal conflict, which incessantly prompting individuals
atnd societies to reciprocal invasions, occasioned successive revolutions, and returning agitations.
" And first, in the savage and barbarous state of the first men,
this inordinate and audacious cupidity produced rapine, violence,
assassination, and retarded for a long time the progress of civiiztatiOn.' When afterward societies began to be formed, the effect of
bad habits, communicated to laws and governments, corrupted
their institutions and objects, and established arbitrary and factitious rights, which depraved the ideas of justice, and the morality of the people.
"Thus, one man being stronger than another,t their inequalSee, respecting these facts, my Travels into Syria, vol. ii., and New
Researches on Ancient History, vol. iii.
t Almost all the ancient philosophers and politicians have laid it down
as a principle, that men are born unequal; that nature has created some
to be free and others to be slaves. These are the positive expressions
of Aristotle in his Politics; and of Plato, called the divine, doubtless in
the same sense as the mythological reveries which he promulgated. With
all the people of antiquity, the Gauls, the Romans, the Athbnians,.the
right of the strongest was the right of nations; and from the same prmi
tiple are derived'all political disorders and public national crimes




THE  RUINS.                         47
ity, an accident of nature, was taken for her law; and the strong
having spared the weak, whose life was in his power, arrogated
over his person an abusive right of property, and the slavery of
individuals prepared the way for the slavery of nations.
A" Because the head of a family could exercise an absolute
authority in his own house, he made his affections and desires
the sole rule of his conduct; he gave or resumed his goods without equality, without justice, and paternal despotism laid the
foundation of despotism in government.* And in societies
formed on such foundations, when time and labor had developed
riches, cupidity, restrained by the laws, became more artful, but
not less active. Under the mask of union and civil peace, it
fomented, in the bosom of every state, an intestine war, in
which the citizens, divided into contending corps of professions,
classes, and families, unremittingly struggled to appropriate to
themselves, under the name of supreme power, the ability of
plundering everything, and rendering everything subservient to
the dictates of their passions; and this spirit of encroachment,
disguised under all possible forms, but always the same in
its object and motives, has been the perpetual scourge of nations.
"'ISometimes, opposing the social compact, or infringing that
which already existed, it committed the inhabitants of a country
to the tumultuous shock of all their discords; and states, thus
dissolved, and reduced to the condition of anarchy, were tormented by the passions of all their members.
" Sometimes a nation, jealous of its liberty, having appointed
agents to administer, these agents assumed to themselves the
-powers of which they were only the guardians, and employed
the public treasures in corrupting elections, gaining partisans,
and dividing the people against itself. By these means, from
* What is a family? An elementary portion of that great body called
nation. The spirit of this great body is but the sum of its fractions; as
the manners of the family are, so are the manners of the whole. The
great vices of Asia are: 1. Paternal despotism; 2. Polygamy, which demoralizes the entire family, and which, among kings and princes, causes
the massacre of the brothers at each succession, and ruins the people in
appanages; 3. The want of landed property, owing to the tyrannical
right usurped by the despot; 4. The unequal portioning of children; 5.
The abusive right of legacies; 6. The exclusion of women from the in.
heritance. Change these laws, and you change Asia.




48                     THE  RUINS.
being temporary, they became perpetual, from elective, hereditary; and the state, agitated by the intrigues of the ambitious,
by largesses from the rich and factious, by the venality of the
indolent poor, by the empiricism of orators, by the boldness of
perversity, and the weakness of the virtuous, was convulsed with
all the inconveniences of democracy.
"In some countries the chiefs, equal in strength, and mutually fearing each other, formed impious pacts, nefarious associations, and, portioning out power, rank, and honors, arrogated
to themselves privileges and immunities; erected themselves into
separate orders and distinct classes; united in enslaving the people; and, under the name of aristocracy, the state was tormented
by the passions of the wealthy and the great.
" In other countries, tending by other means to the same object, sacred impostors have taken advantage of the credulity of
the ignorant. In the gloom of their temples, behind the curtain of the altar, they made their gods act and speak, delivered
oracles, worked miracles, ordered sacrifices, levied offerings,
prescribed endowments, and, under the names of theocracy and
religion, the states were tormented by the passions of the
priests.
i" Sometimes a nation, weary of its dissensions, or of its tyrants, to lessen the sources of evil, submitted to a single master:
but, if it limited his powers, his sole aim was to enlarge them;
if it left them indefinite, he abused the trust confided to him;
and, under the name of monarchy, the state was tormented by
the passions of kings and princes.
" Then the factions, availing themselves of the general discontent, flattered the people with the hope of a better master,
dealt out gifts and promises, deposed the despot to take his
place; and their contests for the succession, or its partition,
tormented the state with the disorders and devastations of civil
wtar.
i" In fine, among these rivals, one more artful, or more fortunate, gained the ascendancy, and concentrated all power within
himself: by a strange phenomenon, a single individual mastered,
millions of his equals against their will, or without their consent,
and the art of tyranny was also the offspring of cupidity. In fact,
observing the spirit of egotism which incessantly divides mankind,
the ambitious man fomented it with dexterity-flattered the vani



TIlE  RUINS.                       49
ty ofone, excited the jealousy of another, favored the avarice of this,
inflamed the resentment of that, and irritated the passions of all;
then, placing in opposition their interests and prejudices, he sowed
divisions and hatreds, promised to the poor the spoils of the rich,
to the rich the subjection of the poor, threatened one man by another, this class by that, and, insulating all by distrust, created his
strength by their weakness, and imposed the yoke of opinion
which they mutually riveted on each other. With the army he
levied contributions, and with contributions he disposed of the
army; lavishing wealth and office on these principles, he enchained a whole people in indissoluble bonds, and they languished under the slow consumption of despotism.
"' Thus did a same principle, varying its action under every
possible form, unremittingly attenuate the consistence of states,
and an eternal circle of vicissitudes flowed from an eternal circle
of passions.," And this constant spirit of egotism and usurpation produced
two principal effects equally destructive: the one, a division and
subdivision of societies into their smallest fractions, inducing a
debility which facilitated their dissolution; the other, a persevering tendency to concentrate power in a single hand,* which,
by a successive absorption of societies and states, was fatal to
their peace and social existence.
"Thus, as in a state, a party absorbed the nation, a family the
party, and an individual the family; so a movement of absorption took place between state and state, and exhibited on a larger
scale in the political order, all the particular evils of the civil order. Thus a state, having subdued a state, held it in subjection
in the form of a province; and two provinces, one of which had
swallowed up the other, formed a kingdom: finally, two kingdoms being united by conquest, gave birth to empires of gigantic size; and in this conglomeration the internal strength of
* It is remarkable that this has, in all instances, been the constant
progress of societies; beginning with a state. of anarchy or democracy,
that is, with a great division of power, they have passed to aristocracy
and from aristocracy to monarchy: does it not follow, from this historical fact, that those who constitute states under the democratic form des.
tine them to undergo all the intervening troubles between that and mon
archy; but it should, at the same time, be proved that social experience
is already exhausted for the human race, and that this spontaneous move.
ment is not solely the effect of ignorance.
5




50                    THE RUINS.
states, instead of increasing, diminished; and the conditiun of
the people, instead of ameliorating, became daily more irksome
and wretched, for causes constantly derived from the nature of
things.
" Because, in proportion as states increased in extent, their
administration becoming more difficult and complicated, greater
energies of power were necessary to move such masses, and
there was no longer any proportion between the duties of sovereigns and their ability to perform their duties:
"Because despots, feeling their weakness, feared whatever
might develop the strength of nations, and studied only how to
enfeeble them:
"Because nations, divided by the prejudices of ignorance
and hatred, seconded by the perversity of governments, and
availing themselves reciprocally of satellites, aggravated their
mutual slavery:
" Because, the balance between states being destroyed, the
strong more easily oppressed the weak:
"' Finally, because, in proportion as states were concentrated,
the people, despoiled of their laws, of their usages, and of the
governments that suited them best, lost that spirit of personal identification with the government which gave them energy.
"And despots, considering empires as their private domains,
and the people as their property, abandoned themselves to
depredations, and to all the licentiousness of the most arbitrary
authority.
"And all the strength and wealth of nations were diverted to
private expense and personal caprice; and kings, fatigued with
gratification, launched into all the extravagances of a factitious
and depraved taste: they must have gardens erected upon arcades, rivers raised over mountains, fertile fields converted into
haunts for wild beasts, lakes scooped in dry lands, rocks elevated
in lakes, palaces built of marble and porphyry, furniture of gold
and diamonds. Under the cloak of religion, their pride founded
temples, endowed indolent priests, built, for vain skeletons, extravagant tombs, mausoleums, and pyramids;* millions of hands
were employed in sterile labors; and the luxury of princes, im-' The learned Dupuis could not be persuaded that the pyramids were
tombs; but, besides the positive testimony of historians, read what i.




THE  RUINS.                        51
itated by their parasites, and descending step by step to the
lowest ranks, became a general source of corruption and im
poverishment.
I" And in the insatiable thirst of enjoyment, the ordinary revenues no longer sufficing, they were augmented; the cultivator,
seeing his labors increase without retribution, was disheartened; the merchant, despoiled, was disgusted with industry;
the multitude, condemned to eternal poverty, restrained their
labor to simple necessaries, and all productive activity vanished.
I" The surcharge of taxes rendering lands a burdensome possession, the poor proprietor abandoned his field, or sold it to the
powerful, and fortune became concentrated in a few hands. All
the laws and institutions favoring this accumulation, the nation
became divided into a group of indolent rich, and a multitude
of mercenary poor. The people were degraded with indigence,
the great depraved with satiety, and the} numr^r of those interested in the preservation of the state decreasing, its strength and
existence became proportionably precarious.
&" On the other hand, emulation finding no object, science no
encouragement, the mind sunk into profound ignorance.
"' The administration being secret and mysterious, there existed no means pf reform or amelioration; the chiefs governing
by force or fraud, the people viewed them as a faction of public
enemies, and all harmony ceased between the governors and
governed.
odorus says of the religious and superstitious importance every Egyptian
attached to building his eternal dwelling, book i.
During twenty years, says Herodotus, a hundred thousand men labored
every day to build the pyramid of the Egyptian king Cheops. Supposing
only three hundred days a year, on account of the sabbath, there will be
thirty millions of days' work in a year, and six hundred millions in twen.
ty years; at 15 sous a day, this makes 450 millions of francs lost, with.
out any further benefit. With this sum, if the king had shut the isthmus
of Suez by a strong wall, like that of China, the destinies of Egypt might
have beene ntirely changed. Foreign invasions would have been stopped,
prevented, and the, Arabs of the desert would neither have conquered nor
harassed that country. Sterile labors! how many millions lost in putting
one stone upon another, under the forms of temples and churches! Al.
chymists convert stones into gold; but architects change gold into stone.
Wo to the kings (as well as subjects) who trust their purse to these two
classes of empirics!




62                    THE  RUINS.
"All these vices having enervated the states o1 opulent Asia,
he vagrant and indigent inhabitants of the adjacent deserts and
mountains coveted the enjoyments of the fertile plains, and,
urged by a cupidity common to all, attacked the polished empires, and overturned the thrones of their despots; and these
revolutions were rapid and easy, because the policy of tyrants
had enervated the subjects, razed the fortresses, destroyed the
warriors; and because the oppressed subjects remained without personal interest, and the mercenary soldiers without
courage.
" And hordes of barbarians having reduced entire nations to
slavery, the empires formed of conquerors and conquered united
in their bosom two classes essentially opposite and hostile. All
the principles of society were dissolved; there was no longer
any common interest, any public spirit; and there arose a distinction of castes and races, which reduced into a regular system the maintenance of disorder; and according as a man was
born, of this or that blood, he was born a slave or a tyrant, property or proprietor.
1" The oppressors being less numerous than the oppressed, it
was necessary to perfect the science of oppression, in order to
support this false equilibrium. The art of governing became
the art of subjecting the many to the few. To enforce an obedience so contrary to instinct, the severest punishments were
established; and the cruelty of the laws rendered manners atrocious. The distinction of persons establishing in the state two
codes, two orders of justice, two sets of laws, the people, placed
between the propensities of the heart, and the oath uttered from
the mouth, had two consciences in contradiction with each
other; and the ideas of justice and injustice had no longer any
foundation in the understanding.
"' Under such a system, the people fell into dejection and
despair. And the accidents of nature being added to the other
evils which assailed them, in the despondency caused by so
many calamities, they attributed their causes to superior and
hidden powers; and because they saw tyrants on earth, they fancied others in heaven; and superstition aggravated the misfortunes of nations.
"Hence originated fatal doctrines, gloomy and misanthropic
systems of religion, which painted the gods malignant and en



THE  RUINS.                       53
vious, likle their despots. Man, to appease them, offered up the
sacrifice of all his enjoyments; he environed himself in privations, and reversed the laws of nature. Conceiving his pleasures to be crimes, his sufferings expiations, he endeavored to
love pain, and to abjure the love of self; he persecuted his senses, hated his life; and a self-denying and anti-social morality
plunged nations into the apathy of death.
" But provident nature having endowed the heart of man with
inexhaustible hope, when he found his desires of' happiness all
baffled on this earth, he pursued it into another world: by a
sweet illusion he created for himself another country —an asylum where, far from tyrants, he should recover the rights of his
nature; and thence resulted new disorders. Smitten with an
imaginary world, man despised that of nature; for chimerical
hopes, he neglected the reality. His life began to appear a toilsome journey-a painful dream; his body a prison, the obstacle
to his felicity; and the earth, a place of exile and of pilgrimage,
not worthy of culture. Then a holy indolence spread over the
political world; the fields were deserted, empires depopulated,
monuments neglected and deserts multiplied; ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism, combining their operations, overwhelmed
the earth with devastation and ruin.
"Thus agitated by their own passions, men, whether collectively or individually taken, always greedy and improvident,
passing from slavery to tyranny, from pride to servility, from
presumption to despondency, have made themselves the perpetual instruments of their own misfortunes.
"These, then, are the principles, simple and natural, which
regulated the destiny of ancient states; by this regular and
connected series of causes and effects, they rose or fell, in proportion as the physical laws of the human heart were respected
or violated; and in the course of their successive changes, a
hundred different nations, a hundred empires, by turns humbled, elevated, conquered, overthrown, have repeated for the
earth their instructive lessons. Yet these lessons were lost for
the generations which have followed! The disorders of times
past have reappeared in the present age!  The chiefs of the
nations have continued to walk in the paths of falsehood and
tyranny! the people to wander in the darkness of superstition
and ignorance!
5*




54                    THE RUINS.
"Since then," continued the Genius, "with new-collected
energy —ince the experience of past ages is lost for the living,
since the errors of progenitors have not instructed their descendants, the ancient examples are about to reappear; the earth will
see renewed the tremendous scenes it has forgotten. New revolutions will agitate nations and empires; powerful thrones will
be again overturned, and terrible catastrophes will teach mankind that the laws of nature and the precepts of wisdom and
truth can never be infringed with impunity."
CHAPTER XII.
LESSONS OF TIMES PAST REPEATED ON THE PRESENT.
THUS spoke the Genius. Struck with the justice and coherence of his discourse-assailed with a crowd of ideas, repugnant to my habits, yet convincing to my reason, I remained absorbed in profound silence. At length, while with serious and
pensive mien, I kept my eyes fixed on Asia, suddenly in the
north, on the shores of the Black sea and in the fields of the
Krimea, clouds of smoke and flame attracted my attention: they
appeared to rise at the same time from all parts of the peninsula,
and, passing by the isthmus into the continent, they ran, as if
driven by a westerly wind, along the muddy lakeof Azof, and
disappeared in thie grassy plains of Kouban; and following
more attentively the course of these clouds, I observed that
they were preceded or followed by swarms of moving creatures,
which, like ants or grasshoppers disturbed by the foot of a passenger, agitated themselves with vivacity: sometimes these
swarmns appeared to advance and rush against each other, and
numbers, after the concussion, remained motionless. While
disquieted at this spectacle, I strained my sight to distinguish
the objects:-" Do you see," said the Genius, "those flames
which spread over the earth? and do you comprehend their
causes and effects?"-" 0 Genius," I answered, "I see those
columns of flame and smoke, and something like insects accompanying them; but when 1 can scarcely discern the great mass



THE RUINS.                       55
es of cities and monuments, how should I discover such little
creatures? only it should seem that these insects mimic battles,
for they advance, retreat, attack, and pursue."-" It is no mockery," said the Genius, "these are real battles."-" And what
mad animalcules," said I, " are those which destroy each other?
-beings of a day! will they not perish soon enough?"-Then
the Genius, again touching my sight and hearing —" Look,"
said he, "and hear."-Immediately directing my sight towar
the same objects —'Ah! wretches," cried I, oppressed with
grief; "these columns of flames! these insects! O Genius,
they are men-these are the ravages of war! These torrents
of flame rise from towns and villages! I see the squadrons
who kindle them, and who sword in hand overrun the country;
they drive before them crowds of old men, women, and children-fugitive and desolate. I perceive other horsemen, who
with shouldered lances accompany and guide them. I even
recognise them to be Tartars, by their led horses, their kalpaks,
and tufts of hairs; and doubtless they who pursue, in triangular hats and green uniforms, are Muscovites. —Ah! I now comprehend-a war is kindled between the empire of the czars and
that of the sultans!" —" Not yet," replied the Genius; " this is
only a preliminary: these Tartars have been, and might still
be, troublesome neighbors; the Muscovites are driving them
off, finding their country would be a convenient extension of
their own limits; and as a prelude to another revolution, the
throne of the Guerais is destroyed."
And, in fact, I saw the Russian standards floating over the
Krimea-and soon after their flag waving on the Euxine.
Meanwhile, at the cry of the flying Tartars, the Mussulman
empire was in commotion. " They are driving off our brethren," cried the children of Mahomet; "'the people of the
prophet are outraged! infidels occupy a consecrated land, and
profane the temples of Islamism! Let us arm! let us rush to
combat, to avenge the glory of God and our own cause!"
And a general movement of war took place in both empires.
Armed men, provisions, stores, and all the murderous apparatus
of battle, were everywhere assembled; and the temples of both
nations, besieged by an immense multitude, presented a specta
cle which fixed all my attention. On one side, the Mussulmans
assembled before their mosques, washed their hands and feet;




56                    THE RUINS.
pared their nails, and combed their beard; then spreadih a~ w
pets upon the ground, and turning toward the south, with their
arms sometimes crossed and sometimes extended, they made
genuflexions and prostrations; and recollecting the disasters of
the late war, they exclaimed: " God of mercy and clemency!
hast thou then abandoned thy faithful people? Thou who hast
promised to thy Prophet the empire over nations, and stamped
his religion by so many triumphs, dost thou deliver thy true
believers to the swords of infidels?" And the Imams and the
Santons said to the people: "It is in chastisement of your
sins: you eat pork, you drink wine, you touch unclean things.
God hath punished you. Do penance, therefore; purify, re
peat the profession of faith:* fast from the rising to the setting
sun; give the tenth of your goods to the mosques; go to Mecca: and God will render you victorious."  And the people, recovering courage, uttered loud cries: 1" There is but one God,"
said they, transported with fury, "and Mahomet is his prophet:
cursed be the man who believeth not!-God of mercy, grant us
to exterminate these Christians: it is for thy glory we fight,
and our death is a martyrdom for thy name."-And then, offering victims, they prepared for battle.
On the other side, the Ruasians, kneeling, said: "Render
thanks to God, and celebrate his power; he hath strengthened
our arm to humble his enemies. Hear our prayers, O merciful
God: to please thee, we will pass three days without eating
either meat or eggs. Grant us to exterminate these impious
Mahometans, and to overturn their empire: to thee we will
consecrate the tenth of our spoils; to thee we will raise new
temples." And the priests filled the churches with a cloud of
smoke, and said to the people: 1" We pray for you, God accepteth our incense, and blesseth our arms. Continue to fast
and to fight; confess to us your secret crimes; give your wealth
to the Ihurch: we will absolve you from your sins, and you
shall die in a state of grace." And they sprinkled water upon
the people, distributed among them, as -amulets and charms,
small relics of the dead: and the people breathed nothing but
war and slaughter.
Struck with this contrasting picture of the same passions, and
lamenting their baneful consequences, I was considering how
* There is but one God, and Maho net is his prophet.




THE RUINS.                      57
difficult it would be for the common judge to comply with such
contradictory demands, when the Genius, inflamed with anger,
indignantly exclaimed -
"What accents of madness strike my ear; what blind and
perverse delirium disorders the spirits of the nations! Sacrilegious prayers, rise not from the earth — and you, oh Heavens,
reject their homicide vows and impious thanksgivings! Deluded mortals! is it thus you revere the Divinity? Say, how
should he, whom you call you common father, receive the
homage of his children murdering one another?  Ye victors!
with what eye should he view your hands reeking in the blood
he has created? And what do you expect, oh vanquished, from
unavailing groans? Hath God the heart of a mortal, with passions ever changing? Is he, like you, agitated with vengeance
or compassion, with wrath or repentance? What base con
ception of the most sublime of beings! According to them, it
would seem that God, whimsical and capricious, is irritated or
appeased as a man; that he loves and hates alternately; that
he punishes or favors; that, weak or wicked, be broods over
his hatred; that contradictory or perfidious, he lays snares to
entrap; that he punishes the evils he permits; that he foresees
but hinders not crimes; that, like a corrupt judge, he is bribed
by offerings; like an ignorant despot, he makes laws and revokes them; that, like a savage tyrant, he grants or resumes
favors without reason, and can only be appeased by servility.... Ah! now I know the lying spirit of man! Contemplating the picture he hath drawn of the Divinity, No, said I, it is
not God who hath made man, but man who hath made God
after his own image; he hath given him his own mind, clothed
him with his own propensities, ascribed to him his own judgments.... And when in this medley he finds the contradiction of his own principles, affecting hypocritical humility, he
imputes weakness to his reason, and names the absurdities of
his own mind mysteries of God.
" He hath said: God is immutable; yet he offers prayers to
change him. He hath pronounced him incomprehensible; yet
he is never without interpreters.
" Imposters have arisen on the earth who have called themselves the confidants of God, and who, erecting themselves into
teachers of the people, have opened the ways of falsehood and




58                      THE  RUINS.
iniquity.; they have ascribed merit to practices indifferent o0
ridiculous; they have supposed a virtue in certain postures, in
pronouncing certain words, articulating certain names; they
have transformed into a crime the eating of certain meats, the
drinking of certain liquors, on one day rather than on another.
The Jew would rather die than labor on the sabbath; the Persian would endure suffocation, before he would blow the fire
with his breath; the Indian places supreme perfection in besmearing himself with cow-dung, and pronouncing mysteriously
Aum;* the Mussulman believes he has expiated everything in
washing his head and arms, and disputes, sword in hand, whether the ablution should commence at the elbowf or finger ends;
the Christian would think himself damned, were he to eat flesh
instead of milk or butter. Oh, sublime doctrines! Doctrines
truly from Heaven! Oh, perfect morals, and worthy of martyrdom or the apostolate! I will cross the seas to teach these aduuirable laws to the savage people, to distant nations; I will say
unto them,' Children of nature, how long will you walk in the
paths of ignorance? How long will you mistake the true prin
ciples of morality and religion? Come and learn its lessons
from nations truly pious and learned, in civilized countries:
they will inform you, how, to gratify God, you must in certain
months of the year languish the whole day with hunger and
thirst; how you may shed you neighbor's blood, and purify
yourself from it by professions of faith and methodical ablutions; how you may steal his property and be absolved on
sharing it with certain persons, who devote themselves to its
consumption.''Sovereign and invisible power of the universe! mysterious
* This word, in signification, and nearly in sound, resembles the Aeuum
(svum) of the Latins-eternity, unbounded time. According to the
Indians, this word is the emblem of the tripartite divinity: A denotes
Bramah (the time past that created), U, Vichenou (the time present
thaf preserves), M, Chiven (the time future that shall destroy).
t This is one of the grand points of schism between the partisans of
Omar and those of All. Suppose two Mahometans to meet on a journey, and to accost each other with brotherly affection: the hour of
prayer arrives; one begins his ablution at his fingers, the other at the
elbow-and instantly they are mortal enemies. In other countries, if a
man eats meat on one day rather than on another, a cry of indignation
will be raised against him. By what name are we to call such follies I




THE RUINS.                      59
mover of nature! universal soul of beings! thou who art unknown, yet revered by mortals under so many names! being
incomprehensible and infinite! God, who in the immensity of
the heavens directest the movement of worlds, and peoplest the
abyss of space with millions of suns! say, what do these human
insects, which my sight no longer discerns on the earth, appear
in thy eye? To thee, who art guiding stars in their orbits,
what are those wormlings writhing themselves in the dust?
Of what import to thy immensity, their distinctions of parties
and sects? And, of what concern the subtleties with which
their folly torments itself?
"And you, credulous men, show me the effect of your practices! In so many centuries, during which you have been following or altering them, what changes have your prescriptions
wrought in the laws of nature? Is the sun brighter? Is the
course of the seasons varied? Is the earth more fruitful, or its
inhabitants more happy? If God is good, can your penances
please him? If infinite, can your homage add to his glory?
If his decrees have been formed on foresight of every circumstance, can your prayers change them? Answer, inconsistent
men,
"Ye conquerors of the earth, who pretend you serve God!
doth he need your aid? If he wishes to punish, hath he not
earthquakes, volcanoes, and thunder, at command?  And can
not a merciful God correct without extermination?
"' Ye Mussulmans, if God chastiseth you for violating the five
precepts, how hath he raised up the Franks who ridicule them?
If he governeth the earth by the Koran, on what principles did
he judge, before the days of the prophet, so many nations who
drank wine, ate pork, went not to Mecca, and whom he nevertheless permitted to raise powerful empires? How did he
judge the Sabeans of Nineveh and of Babylon; the Persian,
worshipper of fire; the Greek and Roman idolaters; the ancient kingdoms of the Nile; and your own ancestors, the Arabians and Tartars? How doth he yet judge so many nations
who deny or know not your worship: the numerous castes
of Indians, the vast empire of the Chinese, the sable race of
Africa, the islanders of the ocean, the tribes of America?
" Presumptuous and ignorant men, who arrogate the earth
to yourselves! if God were to unite together all the generations




s0                    THE RUINS.
past and present, what would be, in their ocean, the sects, clal.
ing themselves universal, of Christians and Mussulmans?
What would be the judgments of his equal and common justice over the real universality of mankind? Therein it is that
your knowledge loseth itself in incoherent mysteries; it is there
that truth shines with evidence; and there are manifested the
powerful and simple laws of nature and reason-laws of a common and general mover; of an impartial and just God, who
sheds rain on a country without asking who is its prophet; who
causeth his sun to shine alike on all the races of men, on the
white as on the black, on the Jew, the Mussulman, the Christian, and the Idolater; who reareth the harvest wherever cultivated with care; who prospereth every empire where justice is
practised, where the powerful man is restrained, and the poor
protected by the laws —where the weak live in safety, and every
one enjoys the rights given him by nature and a compact formed
in justice.
"These are the principles by which people are judged! this
is the true religion which regulates the destiny of empires, and
which, 0 Ottomans, has governed yours! Interrogate your
ancestors, ask of them by what means they rose to greatness,
when, few, poor, and idolaters, they came from the deserts of
Tartary, and encamped in these fertile countries; ask if it was
by Islamism, till then unknown to them, that they conquered
the Greeks and the Arabs, or by their courage, their prudence,
moderation, spirit of union, the true powers of the social state.
Then the sultan himself dispensed justice and maintained discipline; the prevaricating judge, the extortionate governor, were
punished, and the multitude lived at ease; the cultivator was
protected from the rapine of the janissary, and the fields prospered; the highroads were safe, and commerce produced abundance. You were a band of plunderers, but just among yourselves; you subdued nations, but did not oppress them. Harassed by their own princes, they preferred being your tributaries. What matters it, said the Christian, whether my master
breaks or adores images, if he renders justice to me? God will
judge his doctrine in heaven.
" You were sober and hardy, your enemies timid and effemi
Bate; you were expert in battle, your enemies unskilful; your
leaders experienced, your soldiers warlike and obedient: booty




THE  RUINS.                      @%1,minited ardor, bravery was rewarded; cowardice and indieiptiue
punished; and all the springs of the human heart were in action: thus you vanquished a hundred nations, and of a mass of
conquered kingdoms compounded an immense empire.
1" But other manners have succeeded; and in the reverses attending them, the laws of nature have still exerted their force
After devouring your enemies, your cupidity, always insatiable.
has reacted on itself, and, concentrated in your own bowels, has
consumed you. Having become rich, you have quarrelled for
partition and enjoyment; and disorder arose in every class of
society.. The sultan, intoxicated with grandeur, has mistaken
the object of his functions, and all the vices of arbitrary power
have been developed. Meeting no obstacle to his appetites, he
has become a depraved being; weak and arrogant, he has kept
the people aloof, and the voice of the people has no longer instructed and guided him. Ignorant, yet flattered, neglecting all
instruction, all study, he has fallen into imbecility; unfit for
business, he has thrown its burden on hirelings, and these have
deceived him. To gratify their own passions, they have stimulated and nourished his; they have multiplied his wants, and
his enormous luxury has consumed everything; the frugal table, plain clothing, and simple dwelling of his ancestors no longer sufficed; to supply his pomp, earth and sea were exhausted; the rarest furs were brought from the poles; the most
costly tissues from the equator: he has devoured at a meal the
tribute of a city, and expended in a day the revenue of a protince. He is surrounded with an army of women, eunuchs, and
satellites. They tell him that liberality and munificence are the
virtues of kings, and the treasures of the people have been delivered into the hands of flatterers; in imitation of their master,
his servants also must have splendid houses, the most exquisite
furniture, carpets embroidered at great cost, vases of gold and
silver for the vilest purposes, and all the riches of the empire
have been swallowed up in the Serai.
"To supply this inordinate luxury, the slaves and women
have sold their influence, and venality has introduced a general
depravation; the favor of the sovereign has been sold to the
vizier, and the vizier has sold the empire. The law has been
sold to the cadi, and the cadi has made sale of justice. The
altar has been sold to the priest, and the priest has sold the
6




62                    THE  RUINS.
kingdom  of heaven.  And gold obtaining everything, they
sacrificed everything to obtain gold: for gold the friend betrayed his friend; the child his parent; the servant his master; the wife her honor; the merchant his conscience; and
good faith, morals, concord, and strength, were banished from
the state.
"The pacha, who purchased the government of his province,
considered it as his farm, and practised in it every species of extortion. He;old in turn the collection of the taxes, the command of the troops, the administration of the villages, and, as
every employ has been transient, rapine, spread from rank to
rank, has been greedy and precipitate. The revenue officer has
fleeced the merchant, and commerce was annihilated; the aga
has plundered the husbandman, and culture declined. The
laborer, deprived of his stock, has been unable to sow; when
the taxgatherer came he was unable to pay; threatened with
the bastonade, he was forced to borrow; money, from want of
security, being locked up from circulation, bore an enormous
interest, and the usury of the rich has aggravated the misery of
the laborer.
"When excessive droughts and accidents of seasons have
blasted the harvest, the government admitted no delay, no indulgence for the tax; and distress bearing hard on the village, a
part of its inhabitants have taken refuge in the cities; and their
burden falling on those who remained, has completed their ruin,
and depopulated the country.
- If driven to extremity by tyranny and outrage, the villages
have revolted, the pacha rejoices: he wages war on them, assails their houses, pillages their property, carries off their stock;
and when the fields have become a desert,' What care I?' says
he;'I go away to-morrow.'
i" The earth wanting laborers, the rains of heaven and ovelflowings of torrents have stagnated in marshes, and their putrid
exhalations, in a warm climate, have caused epidemics, plagues.
and diseases of all sorts; whence have flowed additional depopulation, penury, and ruin.
1" Oh, who can enumerate all the calamities of tyrannical govern ment!
"' Sometimes the pachas make war on each other, and for
their personal quarrels the provinces of the same state are laid




THE RUINS.                       63
waste. Sometimes, fearing their masters, they attempt independence, and draw on their subjects the chastisement of their
revolt. Sometimes, dreading their subjects, they call in and
subsidize strangers, and to insure their fidelity set no bounds
to their depredations. Here they persecute the rich, and despoil them under false pretences; there they suborn false witnesses, and impose penalties for supposititious offences: everywhere they excite the hatred of parties, encourage informations
to obtain amercements, extort property, seize persons; and
when their short-sighted avarice has accumulated into one mass
all the riches of a country, the government, under pretence of
avenging the oppressed people, takes to itself by an execrable
perfidy all their spoils with those of the culprit, and sheds useless blood for a crime of which it is the accomplice.
"Oh wretches, monarchs or ministers, who sport with the
lives and fortunes of the people! is it you who gave breath to
man, that you dare take it from him? do you give growth to
the plants of the earth, that you may waste them? do you toil
to furrow the field? do you endure the ardor of the sun, and
the torments of thirst, to reap the harvest or thrash the sheaf?
do you watch, like the shepherd, in the nocturnal dew? do you
traverse deserts. like the merchant?  Ah! on beholding the
pride and cruelty of the powerful, I was transported with indignation, and have said in my wrath:' Will there never arise on
the earth men who will avenge the people and punish tyrants!
a handful of brigands devour the multitude, and the multitude
submits to be devoured! Oh, degenerate people! know you not
your rights? All authority is from you, all power is yours.
In vain kings command you, on the authority of God and of
their lance-soldiers, be still; if God supports the sultan, he
needs not your aid; if his sword suffices, he wants not yours:
let us see what he, can do alone.  The soldiers grounded their
arms; and behold these masters of the world, feeble as the
meanest of their subjects! People! know that those who govern are your chiefs, not your masters; your agents, not your
owners; that they have no authority over you, but by you, and
for you; that your wealth is yours, and they accountable for it;
that, kings or subjects, God has made all men equal, and no
mortal has a right to oppress his fellow-creature.'
"But this nation and its chiefs have mistaken these holy




C4                    THE RUINS.
truths.  They must abide, then, the consequences of then
blindness.  The decree is past; the day approaches when this
colossus of power shall be crushed and crumbled under its own
mass: yes, I swear by the ruins of so many empires destroyed
the empire of the crescent shall share the fate of the despotism
it imitated. A nation of strangers shall drive the sultan from his
mietropolis; the throne of Orkhan shall be overturned, the last
shoot of his trunk shall be broken off; and the horde of Oguzians,* deprived of their chief, shall disperse like that of the
Nogais: in this dissolution, the people of the empire, loosened
from the yoke which united them, shall resume their ancient
distinctions, and a general anarchy shall follow, as happened in
the empire of the Sophis, until there shall arise among the Arabians, Armenians, or Greeks, legislators who may compose new
states. Oh, if there were on earth men profound and bold!
what elements of grandeur and glory! But already the hour
of destiny approaches. The cry of war strikes my ear, and the
catastrophe begins. In vain the sultan leads forth his armies,
his ignorant warriors are beaten and dispersed; in vain he calls
his subjects, their hearts are ice;' it is written,' say they,'what
matters who is our master? we can not lose by the change.'In vain the true believers invoke Heaven and the prophet; the
prophet is dead, and relentless Heaven answers:' Cease to invoke me; you have caused your own misfortunes, cure them
yourselves. Nature has established laws, your part is to obey
them; observe, reason, and profit by experience. It is the folly
of man which ruins him, let his wisdom save him. The people
are ignorant, let them acquire instruction; their chiefs are wicked, let them correct and amend; for such is Nature's decree.'
Since the evils of society spring from cupidity and ignorance,
men will never cease to be persecuted, till they become enlightened and wise; till they practise justice, founded on a knowledge
of their relations, and of the laws of their organization."
* Before the Turks took the name of their chief Othman I., they bore
that of Oguzians; and it was under this appellation that they were driven
out of Tartary by Gengiz, and came from the borders of the Gihoun to
settle in Anadoli.




THE RUINS.                       65
CHAPTER XIII.
WILL THE HUMAN RACE IMPROVE?
AT these words, oppressed with the painful sentiment with
which their severity overwhelmed me: "W Wo to the nations!"
cried 1, bursting into tears; "wo to myself!  Ah! now it is
that I despair of the happiness of man! Since his miseries proceed from his heart, since he himself must apply the remedy,
wo for ever to his existence! Who, indeed, will ever be able
to restrain the lust of wealth in the strong and powerful? Who
can enlighten the ignorance of the weak? Who can teach the
multitude to know their rights, and force their chiefs to perform
their duties? Thus the race of man is always doomed to suffer! Thus the individual will not cease to oppress the individual, a nation to attack a nation, and days of prosperity, of glory,
for these regions shall never return. Alas! conquerors will
come; they will drive out the oppressors, and fix themselves
in their place; but, inheriting their power, they will inherit
their rapacity; and the earth will have changed tyrants, but not
the tyranny."
Then turning to the Genius: "0 Genius!" said I, "1 despair
has sunk into my soul: knowing the nature of man, the perversity of those who govern, and the debasement of the gov
erned, have disgusted me with life; and since there is no choice
but to be the accomplice or the victim of oppression, what remains to the man of virtue but to join his ashes to those of the
tomb!"
The Genius, fixing on me a look of severity, mixed with compassion, replied, after a few moments' silence, " Does virtue,
then, consist in dying? The wicked man is indefatigable in
consummating his crime, and the just is discouraged from doing
good at the first obstacle he meets! But such is the heart of
man; success intoxicates him with confidence, a reverse overturns and confounds him: always given up to the sensation of
the moment, he never judges things by their nature, but by the
impulse of passion. Mortal, who despairest of the human race,
on what profound combinations of facts and of reasoning hast
6*




066                    THE  RUINS.
thou established thy conclusion?  Hast thou scrutinized the
organization of sensible beings, to determine with precision
whether the instinctive force which moves them on to happiness is essentially weaker than that which repels them from it 7
or, embracing in one glance the history of the species, and judging the future by the past, hast thou shown that all improvement is impossible? Say! has human society, since its origin,
made no progress toward knowledge and a better state? Are
men still in their forests, destitute of everything, ignorant, stupid, and ferocious? Are all the nations still in that age when
nothing was seen upon the globe but brutal robbers and brutal
slaves? If at any time, in any place, individuals have ameliorated, why shall not the whole mass ameliorate?  If partial -societies have improved, what shall hinder the improvement of
society in general? And if the first obstacles are overcome, why
should the others be insurmountable?
" Are you of opinion that the human race is degenerating?
Guard against the illusion and the paradoxes of the misanthrope:
man, dissatisfied with the present, ascribes to the past a perfection which never existed, and which only serves to cover his
chagrin. He praises the dead out of hatred to the living, and
beats the children with the bones of their fathers.
"To prove this pretended retrograde progress from  perfection, we must contradict the testimony of reason and of fact;
and if the facts of history are in any measure uncertain, we must
contradict the living fact of man's organization; we must prove
that he is born with the enlightened use of his senses; that,
without experience, he can distinguish aliment from poison;
that tile child is wiser than the old man; that the blind walks
with more safety than the clear-sighted; that the civilized man
is more miserable than the cannibal; in a word, that there is no
ascending scale in experience and instruction.
A" Young man, believe the voice of tombs, and the testimony
of monuments: some countries have doubtless fallen from what
they were at certain epochs; but, if we weigh the wisdom and
happiness of their inhabitants, even in those times, we shall find
more of splendor than of reality in their glory; we shal find,
in the most celebrated of ancient states, enormous vices and
cruel abuses, the true causes of their decay; we shall find, it
general. that the principles of government were atrocious; that




THE: RtINS.                       i7
insolent robberies, barbarous wars, and implacable hitreds, wer
raging from nation to nation;* that natural right was unknown;
that morality was perverted by senseless fanaticism and deplorable superstition; that a dream, a vision, an oracle, were constantly the causes of vast commotions: perhaps the nations are
not yet entirely cured of all these evils; but their intensity at
least is diminished, and the experience of the past has not been
wholly lost. For the last three centuries, especially, knowledge
has increased and been extended; civilization, favored by happy
circumstances, has made a considerable progress, inconveniences and abuses have even turned to its advantage; for, if states
have been too much extended by conquest, the people, by uni-'ting under the same yoke, have lost the spirit of estrangement
and division which made them all enemies one to the other; if
the powers of government have been more concentrated, there
has been more system and harmony in their exercise; if wars
have become more extensive in the mass, they are less bloody
in the detail; if men have gone to battle with less personality,
less energy, their struggles have been less sanguinary and less
ferocious, they have been less free, but less turbulent, more effeminate, but more pacific. Despotism itself has rendered them
some service; for, if governments have been more absolute,
they have been more quiet and less tempestuous; if thrones
have become a property and hereditary, they have excited less
dissensions, and the people have suffered fewer convulsions;
finally, if the despots, jealous and mysterious, have interdicted
all knowledge of their administration, all concurrence in the
management of public affairs, the passions of men, drawn aside
from politics, have attended to the arts, and the sciences of
nature, and the sphere of ideas in every direction has been enlarged: man, devoted to abstract studies, has better understood
his place in the system of nature, and his relations in society;
principles have been better discussed, final causes better explained, knowledge more extended, individuals better instructed,
mtanners more social, and life more happy; the species at large,
especially in certain countries, has gained considerably; and
- Read the history of the wars of Rome and Carthage, of Sparta and
Messina, of Athens and Syracuse, of the Hebrews and the Phoenicians
yet these are the nations which antiquity celebrates as being most pol
ished!




68                     THE  RUINS.
this amelioration can not but increase in future, because its
two principql obstacles, those even which, till then, had rendered it so slow and sometimes retrograde, the difficulty of
transmitting ideas and of communicating them rapidly,'have
ueen at last removed.
" Indeed, among the ancients, each canton, each city, having
a peculiar language, the consequence was favorable to ignorance and anarchy. There was no communication of ideas, no
participation of discoveries, no harmony of interests or of wills,
no unity of action or design; besides, the only means of transmitting and of propagating ideas being that of speech, fugitive
and limited, and that of writing, tedious of execution, expensive
and scarce, the consequence was a hinderance of present instruction, loss of experience from one generation to another,
instability, retrogradation of knowledge, and a perpetuity of
confusion and childhood.
1 "But in the modern world, especially in Europe, great nations having allied themselves in-language, and established vast
communities of opinions; the minds of men are assimilated,
and their affections expanded; there is a sympathy of opinion,
and a unity of action; then that gift of heavenly genius, the
holy art of Printing, having furnished the means of communicating in an instant the same idea to millions of men, and of
fixing it in a durable manner, beyond the power of tyrants to
arrest or annihilate, there arose a mass of progressive instruction, an expanding atmosphere of science, which assures to future ages a solid amelioration. This amelioration is a necessary
effect of the laws of nature; for, by the law of sensibility, man
as invincibly tends to render himself happy, as the flame to
mount, the stone to descend, or the water to find its level. His
obstacle is his ignorance, which misleads him in the means, and
deceives him in causes and effects. He will enlighten himself
ty experience, go right by dint of errors, grow wise and good
because it is interest to be so; and in a nation, ideas being
communicated, whole classes will gain instruction; science will
become a vulgar possession, and all men will know what are
the principles of individual happiness and of public prosperity;
they will know the relations they bear to society, their duties,
and their rights; they will learn to guard against the illusions
of the lust of gain; they will perceive that morality is a phys




THE  RUINS.                      69
ical science, composed, indeed, of elements complicated in their
operation, but simple and invariable in their nature, since they
are only the elements of the organization of man. They will
see the propriety of being moderate and just, because in that is
found the advantage and security of each; they will perceive
that the wish to enjoy at the expense of another is a false calculation of ignorance, because it gives rise to reprisal, hatred,
and vengeance, and that dishonesty is the never-failing offspring
of folly.
6" Individuals will feel that private happiness is allied to public good:
"The weak that, instead of dividing their interests, they ought
to unite them, because equality constitutes their force:' The rich, that the measure of enjoyment is bounded by the
constitution of the organs, and that lassitude follows satiety:
" The poor, that the employment of time, and the peace of
the heart, compose the highest happiness of man.
" And public opinion, reaching kings on their thrones, will
force them to confine themselves within the limits of regular
authority.' "Even chance itself, serying the cause of nations, will sometimes give them feeble chiefs, who, from weakness, will suffer
them to become free; and sometimes enlightened chiefs, who,
from a principle of virtue, will free them.
"'And when nations, free and enlightened, shall become like
great individuals, the whole species will have the same facilities
as particular portions have now; the communication of knowledge will extend from one to another, and reach the whole.
By the law of imitation, the example of one people will be followed by others, who will adopt its spirit and its laws. Even
despots, perceiving that they can no longer maintain their authority without justice and beneficence, will soften their sway
from necessity, from rivalship; and civilization will become
universal.
"' There will be established among the several nations an
equilibrium of force, which, restraining them  all within the
bounds of a just respect for their reciprocal rights, shall put an
end to the barbarous practice of war, and submit their disputes
to civil arbitration; the human race will become one great society, one individual family, governed by the same spirit, by




710)                   THE  RUINS,
common laws, and enjoying all the happiness of which their
nature is susceptible.
"Doubtless this great work will be long accomplishing, because the same movement must be given to an immense body;the same leaven must assimilate an enormous mass of heteogeneous parts.  But this movement shall be effected; its preo
sages are already to be seen. Already the great society, assuming in its course the same characters as partial societies havedone, is evidently tending to a like result. At first disconnected
in all its parts, it saw its members for a long time without cohesion; and this general solitude of nations formed its first age of
anarchy and childhood: divided afterward by chance into irregular sections, called states and kingdoms, it has experienced thei
fatal effects of an extreme inequality of wealth and rank; and
the- aristocracy of great empires has formed its second ageos:
then, these lordly states disputing for pre-eminence, have exhibited the period. of the shock of factions. At present, the
contending parties, wearied with their discord, feel the want of
laws, and sigh for the age of order and peace.  Let but a virtuous chief appear! a just, a powerful people arise! and the earth.
will raise them  to supreme power; the world is waiting for a
legislative people; it wishes and demands it; and my heart
hears its voice" —Then turning toward the West-"- Yes," cobL-.
tinued he, "a hollow sound already strikes my ear: a cry of
liberty, proceeding from far distant shores, resounds on the ancient continent. At this cry, a secret murmuragainstoppressio.
is raised in a powerful nation; a salutary inquietude alarms her
respecting her situation; she inquires what she is, and what
she- ought to be, while, surprised at her own weakness, she interrogates her rights, her resources, and what has been the conduct of her chiefs. Yet another day —a little more reflection —.
and an immense agitation will begin; a new-born age wild
open! an age of astonishment to vulgar minds, of surprise andc
terror to tyrants, of emancipation to a great nation, and of hope
to the human race."'




THE: RUINS. N1
CHAPTER XIV.
THE GREAT OBSTACLE TO IMPROVEMENT.
THE Genius ceased.-But, preoccupied with melancholy
thoughts, my mind resisted persuasion; fearing, however, to
shock him by my resistance, I remained silent.-After a while,
turning to me with a look which pierced my soul — You are
silent," said he, 1" and your heart is agitated with thoughts which
it dares not utter!"-Confused and terrified- -"0 Genius!" I
made answer, " pardon my weakness: doubtless your mouth
can utter nothing but truth; but your celestial intelligence can
seize its rays, where my grosser faculties discern nothing but
clouds. I confess it: conviction has not penetrated my soul,
and I fearedthat my doubts might offend you."
" And what is doubt," replied he,'" that it should be a crime?
Can man feel otherwise than as he is affected? If a truth be
palpable and of importance in practice, let us pity him who
misconceives it: his blindness will bring on its own punishment. If it be uncertain or equivocal, how is he to find in it
what it has not? To believe without evidence or proof, is an
act of ignorance and folly: the credulous man loses himself in
a labyrinth of contradictions: the man of sense examines and
discusses, that he may be consistent in his opinions; the honest
man will bear contradiction, because it gives rise to evidence.
Violence is the argument of falsehood; and to impose a creed
by authority, is the act and indication of a tyrant."
Encouraged by these words-"- 0 Genius!" said I, "since
my reason is free, I strive in vain to entertain the flattering hope
with which you endeavor to console me. The sensible and
virtuous soul is easily caught with dreams of happiness; but a
cruel reality constantly awake ns it to suffering and wretched.
ness. The more I meditate on the nature of man, the more I
examine the present state of societies, the less possible it appears to realize a world of wisdom and felicity. I cast my eye
over the whole of our hemisphere: I perceive in no place the
germ, nor do I foresee the instinctive energy of a happy re~vo
lution. All Asia lies buried in profound darkness. The Chi




7'2                    THE RUINS.
nese, degraded by a bamboo despotism,* blinded by astrological
superstition, restrained by an immutable code of gestures, by
the radical vices of an ill-constructed language,f and still more
defective writing, appear to be, in their abortive civilization,
nothing but a people of automatons. The Indian, borne down
by prejudices, and enchained in the sacred fetters of his castes,
vegetates in an incurable apathy. The Tartar, wandering or
fixed, always ignorant and ferocious, lives in the savageness of
his ancestors.  The Arab, endowed with a happy genius, loses
its force and the fruits of his virtue in the anarchy of his tribes
and the jealousy of his families. The African, degraded from
the rank of man, seems irrevocably doomed to servitude. In
the north, I see nothing but vilified serfs, herds of men, with
which the landlords stock their estates. Ignorance, tyranny,
and wretchedness, have everywhere stupefied the nations; and
vicious habits, depraving the natural senses, have destroyed the
very instinct of happiness and of truth. In some-countries of
Europe, indeed, reason has begun to dawn; but even there, do
nations partake of the knowledge of individuals? Are the talents and genius of governors turned to the benefit of the people? And those nations which call themselves polished, are
they not the same that for the last three centuries have filled
the earth with their injustice? Are they not those who, under
the pretext of commerce, have desolated India, dispeopled a
new continent, and subject Africa at present to the most barbarous slavery? Can liberty be born from the bosom of despots?
and shall justice be rendered by the hands of piracy and extortion? O Genius! I have seen the civilized countries, and the
illusion of their wisdom has vanished from my sight: I saw
riches accumulated in the hands of a few, and the multitude
poor and destitute. I have seen all rights, all powers, concentred in certain classes, and the mass of the people passive and
dependant. I have seen families of princes, but no families of
the nation. I have seen government interests, but no public
* The Jesuits have endeavored to represent under favorable colors the
Chinese government; it is now known to be a pure oriental despotism.
t The Chinese people proves to us that in antiquity, until the discovery
of alphabetical writing, the human understanding found it very difficult
to advance, as before Arabian ciphers it was very difficult to settle ac.
counts. All depends on method: and China can only be changed by an
alteration in its language.




THE  RUINS.                       73
interests or spirit. I have seen that all the science of government was to oppress prudently; and the refined servitude of
polished nations appeared to me only the more irremediable.
" One obstacle above all has profoundly struck my mind. On
surveying the globe, I have seen it divided into twenty different
systems of religion: every nation has received, or formed, opposite opinions; and every one ascribing to itself the exclusive
possession of the truth, must believe the other to be wrong.
Now if, as must be the fact in this discordance of opinion, the
greater part are in an error, and are sincere in it, then it follows
that our mind embraces falsehood as it does truth; and if so,
how is it to be enlightened? When prejudice has once seized
the mind, how is it to be dissipated? How shall we remove
the bandage from our eyes, when the first article in every creed,
the first dogma in all religion, is the absolute proscription of
doubt, the interdiction of examination, and the rejection of our
own judgment? How is truth to make herself known? if she
resorts to arguments and proofs, the timid man stifles the voice
of his own conscience; if she invokes the authority of celestial
powers, the prepossessed man opposes it with another authority of the same origin, and calls all innovation blasphemy.
Thus man in his blindness has riveted his own chains, and surrendered himself for ever, without defence, to the sport of his
ignorance and his passions. To dissolve such fatal chains, a
miraculous concurrence of happy circumstances would be necessary: a whole nation, cured of the delirium of superstition,
must be inaccessible to the impulse of fanaticism; freed from
the yoke of false doctrine, a whole people must impose upon
itself that of true morality and reason: this people should be
courageous and prudent, wise and docile; each individual,
knowing his rights, should not transgress them; the poor
should know how to resist seduction, and the rich the allure-nents of avarice; there should be found leaders disinterested
and just, and their tyrants should be seized with a spirit of madness and folly: this people, recovering its rights, should feel its
inability to exercise them in person, and should name its representatives; creator of its magistrates, it should know at once to
respect and to judge them; in the sudden reform of a whole
nation, accustomed to live by abuses, each individual displaced
should bear with patience his privations, and submit to a change
7




74                    THE RUINS.
of habits; this nation should have the courage to conquer its
liberty, the power to defend it, the wisdom to establish it, and
the generosity to extend it to others:-and can we ever expect
the union of so many circumstances? But suppose that chance,
in its infinite combinations, should produce them, shall I see
those fortunate days? Will not my ashes long ere then be cold
in the tomb?"
Here, sunk in sorrow, my oppressed heart no longer found
utterance.-The Genius answered not, but I heard him say, in
a low voice —' I must revive the hope of this man; for if he
who loves lhis fellow-creatures be suffered to despair, what will
become of nations? The past is, perhaps, too discouraging; I
must anticipate futurity, and disclose to the eye of virtue the
astonishing age that is ready to begin; that, on viewing the obiect she desires, she may be animated with new ardor, and redouble her efforts to attain it."
CHAPTER XV.
THE NEW AGE.
SCARCELY had he' finished these words, when a great noise
arose in the west; and turning to that quarter, I perceived, at
the extremity of the Mediterranean, in one of the nations of
Europe, a prodigious movement-such as when a violent sedition arises in a vast city-a numberless people, rushing in all
directions, pour through the streets and fluctuate like waves in
the public places. My ear, struck with the cries which resounded to the heavens, distinguished these words:-,"What is this new prodigy?  What cruel and mysterious
scourge is this? We are a numerous people, and we want
hands! we have an excellent soil, and we are in want of subsistence! we are active and laborious, and we live in indigence!
we pay enormous tributes, and we are told they are not sufficient! we are at peace without, and our persons and property
ale not safe within! Who, then, is the secret enemy that dev ursS Is?."




THE RUINS.                       75
Some voices, from the midst of the multitude, replied:"Raise a discriminating standard, and let all those who maintain and nourish mankind by useful labors gather round it, and
you will discover the enemy that preys upon you."
The standard being raised, this nation divided itself at once
into two unequal bodies, of a contrasted appearance: one, innumerable, and almost total, exhibited, in the general poverty of
its clothing, in its emaciated appearance and sun-burnt faces,
the marks of misery and labor; the other, a little group, an imperceptible faction, presented, in its rich attire bedaubed with
gold and silver, and in its sleek and ruddy faces, the signs of
leisure and abundance.
Considering these men more attentively, I found that the
great body was composed of farmers, artificers, merchants, all
professions useful to society, and that the little group was made
up of the ministers of worship of every order (monks and
priests), of financiers, nobles and men in livery, of the commanders of troops and other hireling agents of government.
These two bodies being assembled face to face, and regarding
each other with astonishment, I saw indignation and rage arising
in one side, and a sort of panic in the other;'and the larger said
to the smaller body:"' Why are you separated from us? are you not of our number?"
" No," replied the group: "you are the people; we are a
privileged class, who have our laws, customs, and rights, peculiar to ourselves."
People.-".. And what labor do you perform in our society?"
Privileged Class.-," None; we are not made to work."
People.-", How, then, have you acquired these riches?'"
Privileged Class.-," By taking the pains to govern you."
People.-", What! we toil, and you enjoy! we produce, and
you dissipate! Wealth proceeds from us; you absorb it, and
you call this governing!-Privileged class, distinct body not
belonging to us, form your nation apart, and we shall see how
you will subsist."
Then the smaller group, deliberating on this new state of
things, some just and generous men among them said: 1" We
must join the people, and bear our part of the burden, for they
are men like us, and our riches cone- from them."  But otherr




76                       THE  RUINS.
arrogantly exclaimed: "It would be a shame, an infamy, for us
to mingle with the crowd; they are born to serve us. Are we
not the noble and pure descendants of the conquerors of this
empire? This multitude must be'reminded of our rights and
its own origin."
The Nobles.-", People! know you not that our' ancestors
conquered this land, and that your race was spared only on
condition of serving us? This is our social compact! this the
government constituted by custom and prescribed by time."
People.-.. 0 conquerors, pure of blood! show us your genealogies! we shall then see if what in an individual is robbery
and plunder, can be virtuous in a nation."
And forthwith, voices were heard in every quarter calling. out
the nobles by their names; and relating their origin and parentage, they told how the grandfather, great-grandfather, or even
father, born traders and mechanics, after acquiring wealth in
every way, had purchased their nobility for money: so that but
very few families were really of the original stock. 1" See,"
said these voices, " see these purse-proud commoners who deny
their parents! see these plebeian recruits who look on themnselves as illustrious veterans!" —and peals of laughter were
heard.
To stifle them, some astucious men cried out: "Mild and
faithful people, acknowledge the legitimate authority:* the king
wills, the law ordains."
* To ascertain the signification of the word legitimate, it should be
considered that it comes from the Latin legi.intimus-intrinsic in the
law, written in it. If, therefore, the law is made by the prince alone.
the prince alone mnakes himself legitimate: then he is merely a despot;
his will is the law. ThiW is not what is meant, for the same right would
be transferred to the power that should overturn him. What is the law
(the source of right)? The Latin also informs us: from legere, to read
lectio-is derived lex, res lecta-thing read: this thing read is an order to
do, or not to do, a particular action, and this on condition of penalty or
reward attached to the observance or infringement. This order is read
to those concerned, that they might not plead ignorance. It was writ-,en, that it might be read without any alteration: such is the significa.
Vlon, and such the origin, of the word law. Hence the several epithets
of which it is susceptible: wise law, absurd law, just law, unjust law,
according to the effect resulting from it, and it is this effect which char.
acterizes the power whence it proceeds. Now, in the social state, in
the government of men. what is just and unjust?  Justice consists in




THE -RUINS.                         77
People. —" Privileged class, explain the word legitimate: if
it means conformable to intrinsic in the law, say who made the
law? Can the law ordain anything else than the preservation
of the multitude?"
Then the military governors said: "The multitude will only
submit to force; we must chastise them. Soldiers, strike this
rebellious people!"
People.-"- Soldiers! you are of our blood! Will you strike
your brothers, your relations?. If the people perish, who will
nourish the army?"
And the soldiers, grounding their arms, said: "We are likewise the people; show us the enemy!"
Then the ecclesiastical governors said: 4" There is but one
resource left: the people are superstitious; we must frighten
them with the name of God and religion.
1" Our dear brethren! our children! God has ordained us to
govern you."
People. —" Show us your powers from God.!"
Priests. —" You must have faith; reason leads astray."
People.-" Do you govern without reason?"
Priests. —" God commands peace: religion prescribes obedience."
People.-" Peace supposes justice; obedience implies con
viction of a duty."
Pr-iests.-" Suffering is the business of this world."
People.-" Show us the example."
preserving or restoring to each individual what belongs to him; conse.
quently, 1st, life, which he owes to a power above all; 2d, the use of
the senses and faculties given him by that same power; 3d, the enjoy.
nent of the fruits of his labor: and all this, as long as he injures not
these same rights in others; for, if he does injure them, there is injustice-that is to say, a breach of equality and equilibrium between man
and man. But the greater the number of the injured, the more injustice
is committed: consequently, if, as is the fact, what is called the people
composes the immense majority of a nation, it is the interest, the happiness of that majority, which constitutes justice. This truth is well ex.
pressed by the axiom: Salus populi, suprema lex esto-the safety of the
people, this is the law, this is legitimacy. And observe that salus does
not say the will, as some fanatics have imagined; for, first, the people
may be deceived; then how is this collective and abstract will to be
expressed? experience proves it. Salus populi! the art is to know and
to accomplish it.
7*




78                   T*HE RUINS.
Priests.-m"  Wouldi you live with gods or kings?
People. —" We would live without oppressors."
Priests. —" You must have mediators, intercessors."
People.-" Mediators with God, and with the king! courtlers
and priests, your services are too expensive: we will henceforth
manage our own affairs."i
And then the little group said: "All is lost' the multitude in
enlightened."
And the people answered: "All: is safe! Since we are enlightened, we will commit no violence; we only. claim out
rights. We feel resentments; but we forgot them: we were
slaves-we might command; but we only wish to be free, and
liberty is but justice."?
CHAPTER XVI.
A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE.
CONSIDERING now that all public power was suspended, and
that the habitual restraint of the people had suddenly ceased; I
shuddered with the apprehension that they would fall into the
dissolution of anarchy; but immediately a voice was heard to
say:" It is not enough that we have freed ourselves from tyrants,
and parasites; we must prevent their return. We are men, and
experience has abundantly taught us that every one is fond of
power, and wishes to enjoy at the expense of others. It is
necessary, then, to guard against a propensity which is the
source of discord; we must establish certain rules of duty and
of right. But the knowledge of our rights, and the estimation
of our duties, are so abstract and difficult as to require all the
time and all the faculties of a man. Occupied in our own affairs, we have not leisure for these studies; nor can we exercise
these functions in our own persons. Let us choose, then,
among ourselves, such persons as are capable of this employment. To, them we will delegate our powers to institute our
government and laws; they shall be the representatives of out




THE RUINS.                       79
wills and of our interests. And in order to attain the fairest
representation possible of our wills and our interests, let it be
numerous, and composed of men resembling ourselves."
Having made the election of a numerous body of delegates,
the people thus addressed them:n "We have hitherto lived in a society formed by chance, without fixed agreements, without free conventions, without a stipulation of rights, without reciprocal engagements; and a multitude of disorders and evils have arisen from this precarious state.
We are now determined on forming a regular compact, and we
have chosen you to adjust the articles: examine, then, with
care what ought to be its basis and its conditions; consider
what is the end and the principle of every association; recognise the rights which every member brings, the powers which
he gives up, and those which he reserves to himself: point out
to us the rules of conduct, and equitable laws; prepare us a
new system of government, for we feel that the one which has
hitherto guided us is corrupt. Our fathers have wandered in
the paths of ignorance, and habit has taught us to stray after
them; everything has been done by fraud, violence, and delusion, and the true laws of morality and reason are still obscure;
clear up, then, their chaos; trace out their connexion; publish
their code, and we will adopt it."
And the people raised an immense throne, in form of a pyramid, and, seating on it the men they had chosen, said to them:'We raise you to-day above us, that you may better discover
the whole of our relations, and be above the reach of our pas,
sions.
", But remember. that you are our fellow-citizens; that the
power we confer on you is our own; that we deposite it with
you, not as a property or an inheritance; that you must be the
first to obey the laws you make; that to-morrow you redescend
among us, and that you will have acquired no other right but
that of our esteem and gratitude. And reflect what tribute of
glory the world, which reveres so many apostles of error, will
bestow on the first assembly of rational men, who shall have solemnly proclaimed the immutable principles of justice, and consecrated in the face of tyrants the rights of nations!"




80                    THE RUINS.
CHAPTER XVII.
UNIVERSAL BASIS OF ALL RIGHT AND ALL LAW.
THE men chosen by the people to investigate the true principles of morals and of reason then proceeded in the sacred
object of their mission; and, after a long examination, having
discovered a fundamental and universal principle, a legislator
arose and said to the people:" Here is the primordial basis, the physical origin of all justice and of all right.
*' Whatever be the active power, the moving cause that governs the universe, since it has given to all men the same organs,
the same sensations, and the same wants, it has thereby declared
that it has given to all the same right to the use of its treasures,
and that all men are equal in the order of nature.
", Secondly, since this power has given to each man the
necessary means of preserving his own existence, it is evident
that it has constituted them all independent one of another; that
it has created them free; that no man is subject to another; that
each is absolute proprietor of his own person.
"Equality and liberty are, therefore, two essential attributes
of man-two laws of the Divinity constitutional and unchangeable, like the physical properties of matter.
"Now, every individual being absolute master of his own
person, it follows that a full and free consent is a condition indispensable to all contracts and all engagements.
"Again, since each individual is equal to another, it follows
that the balance of what is received, and of what is given, should
be strictly in equilibrium; so that the idea of liberty necessarily
imports that of justice, the daughter of equality.*
* The words themselves retrace this connexion; for xquilibrium, uq4uitas,; qualitas, are all of the same family, and the physical idea of equal.
ity in the scales of a balance is the archetype of all these abstract ideas.
Liberty itself, when rightly analyzed, is only justice; for, if a man, be.
cause he calls himself free, attacks another, the latter, by the same right
of liberty, can and ought to repel him; the right of one is equal to the
right of the other; force may suspend this equilibrium, but it becomes




THE  RUINS.                       81
"Equality and liberty are therefore the physical and unalterable basis of every union of men in society, and consequently
the necessary and generating principle of every law and of, every
system of regular government.
" A disregard of this basis has introduced in your nation, and
in every other, those disorders which have finally roused you.
It is by returning to this rule that you may reform them, and
reorganize a happy order of society.
" But observe, this reorganization will occasion a violent commotion in your habits, your fortunes, and your prejudices. Vicious contracts and abusive claims must be dissolved; unjust
distinctions, and ill-founded property, renounced; indeed, you
must recur for a moment to a state of nature. Consider whether
you can consent to so many sacrifices."
Then, reflecting on the cupidity inherent in the heart of man,
I thought that this people would renounce all ideas of amelioration.
But, in a moment, a great number of generous men of the
highest rank, advancing toward the pyramid, made a solemn ab
juration of all theirdistinctions and all their riches.  (' Establish
for us," said they, "the laws of equality and liberty; we will
henceforth possess nothing but on the sacred title of justice
" Equality, justice, liberty, these shall be our code and our
standard."
And then the people immediately raised a great standard, inscribed with these three words, in three different colors. They
displayed it over the pyramid of the legislator, and for the first
time the flag of universal justice floated on the face of the
earth; and the people raised before the pyramid a new altar, on
which they placed golden scales, a sword, and a book with this
inscription:
" To equal Law, which judges and protects."
And having surrounded the pyramid and the altar with a vast
amphitheatre, all the nation took their seats to hear the publication of the law. And millions of men, raising at once their
hands to heaven, took the solemn oath to live free and just; to
injustice and tyranny in the lowest democrat as well as in the highest
potentate.




2                    THE RUIN S.
espect their reciprocal properties and rights; to obey the law
end its ministers regularly constituted.
A spectacle so forceful and sublime, so replete with generous
emotions, moved me to tears, and, addressing myself to the Genius, " Let me now live," said I, " for in future 1 have everything
to hope."
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONSTERNATION AND CONSPIRACY OF TYRANTS.
BUT scarcely had the solemn voice of liberty and equality
resounded through the earth, when a movement of confusion
and astonishment arose in different nations: on the one hand,
the people, warmed with desire, but wavering between hope
and fear, between the sentiment of right and habit of oppression,
began to be in motion; the kings, on the other hand, suddenly
awakened from the sleep of indolence and despotism, were
alarmed for the safety of their thrones; while, on all sides, those
clans of civil and religious tyrants, who deceive kings and oppress the people, were seized with rage and consternation; and
concerting their perfidious plans, "Wo to us," said they, " if
this fatal cry of liberty comes to the ears of the multitude! wo
to us if this pernicious spirit of justice be propagated!" And
pointing to the floating banner, " Conceive," said they, "what
a swarm of evils are included in those three words! If all men
are equal, where is our exclusive right to honors and to power?
If all men are to be free, what becomes of our slaves, our vassals, our property? If all are equal in the civil state, where is
our prerogative of birth, of inheritance? what becomes of nobility? It they are all equal in the sight of God, what need of
mediators? where is the priesthood? Let us hasten, then, to
destroy a germ so prolific, and so contagious! We must employ all our cunning against this calamity; we must frighten
the kings, that they may join our cause. We must divide the
people by national jealousies, and occupy them with commotions, wars, and conquests.  They must be alarmed at the
power of this free nation. Let us form a league against the




THE RUINS.                        83
common enemy, demolish that sacrilegious standard, overturn
that throne of rebellion, and stifle the flame of revolution in its
birth."
And, indeed, the civil and religious tyrants of nations formed
a general coalition; and multiplying their followers by force
and seduction, they marched in hostile array against the free
nation; and, surrounding the altar and the pyramid of natural
law, they exclaimed, "What is this new and heretical doctrine?
What this impious altar, this sacrilegious worship? True believers and loyal subjects! can you suppose that truth is first
disclosed to you to-day, and that hitherto you have been walking in error? that those rebels, more lucky than you, have the
sole privilege of wisdom? And you, misguided nation, per.
ceive you not that your new leaders are deceiving you, that
they pervert the principles of your faith, and overturn the religion of your fathers? Ah, tremble! lest the wrath of Heaven
should kindle against you, and hasten by speedy repentance to
retrieve your error."
But, inaccessible to seduction, as well as to fear, the free nation answered not, and rising universally in arms, assumed an
imposing.attitude.
And the legislator said to the chiefs of nations: " If while we
walked with a bandage over our eyes the light guided our steps,
why, since we are no longer blindfold, should it escape our
search? If guides, who prescribe clear-sightedness to man,
mislead and deceive him, what can be expected from those who
profess to keep him in darkness?
" Leaders of the people! if you possess the truth, show it to
us: we will receive it with gratitude; for we seek it with ardor, and have a great interest in finding it: we are men, and
liable to be deceived; but you are also men, and equally fallible. Aid us, then, in this labyrinth, where the human race has
wandered for so many ages; help us to dissipate the illusion of
so many prejudices and vicious habits;. amid the shock of so
many opinions which dispute for our acceptance, assist us in
discovering the proper and distinctive character of truth.  Let
us terminate this day the long combat of error; let us establish
between it and truth a solemn contest, to which we will invite
the opinions of men of all nations; let us convoke a general assembly of the nations; let them be judges in their own cause,




84                   1 THE RUINS.
and. in- the debate of all systems, let no, champion, no argument;
be wanting, either on the side of prejudice or of reason; and let
the sentiment of a general and common mass of evidence give
birth to a universal concord of opinions and of hearts."
CHAPTER XIX.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF'rHE lNATIONS'.
THUS spoke the legislator; and the multitude,. seized! with
those emotions which a reasonable proposition always, inspires,
expressed its applause, while the tyrants, left without support,
were overwhelmed with confusion.
A scene of a new and astonishing nature then opened to-my
view: all the people and nations inhabiting the globe,. men of
every race and of every region, converging from their various
climates, seemed to assemble in one allotted place; where.
forming an immense congress, distinguished in groups by the
vast variety of their dresses, features, and complexion, the
numberless multitude presented a most unusual and affecting
sight.
On one side I saw the European, with his short close coat,
pointed triangular hat, smooth chin, and powdered hair; on the
other side the Asiatic, with a flowing robe, long beard, shaved
head, and round turban. Here stood the nations of Africa, with
their ebony skins, their woolly hair, their body girt with white
and blue tissues of bark, adorned with bracelets and necklaces of
coral, shells, and glass: there the tribes ot' the north, enveloped:
in their leathern bags.; the Laplander, with: his pointed bonnet
and his snow-shoes; the Samoyede, with his feverish body and
strong odor; the Tongouse, with his horned cap, and carrying
his idols pendent from his neck; the Yakoute,with his freckled
face; the Kalmuc, with his flat nose and little retorted eyes.
Farther distant were the Chinese, attired in silk, with their hair
hanging in tresses; the Japanese, of mingled race; the Malays,
with wide-spreading ears, rings in their noses, and broad hats
of the palm-'eaf; and the tattooed races of the isles of the ocean




THE RUINS.                       85
and of thie continent of the antipodes. The view of so many
varieties of the same species, of so many extravagant inventions
of the same understanding, and of so many modifications of the
same organization, affected me with a thousand feelings and a
thousand thoughts. I contemplated with astonishment this
gradation of color, which, passing from a bright carnation to a
light brown, a deeper brown, smutty, bronze, olive, leaden,
copper, ends in the black of ebony and jet. And finding the
Kachemirian, with his rosy cheek, next to the sun-burnt Hin
doo, and the Georgian by the side of the Tartar, I reflected on
the effects of climate hot or cold, of soil high or low, marshy
or dry, open or shaded. I compared the dwarf of the pole with
the giant of the temperate zones; the slender body of the Arab
with the clumsy Hollander; the squat stunted figure of the
Samoyede with the elegant form of the Greek and the Sclavonian; the greasy black wool of the Negro with the bright silken
locks of the Dane; the broad face of the Kalmuc, his little angular eyes and flattened nose, with the oval prominent visage,
large blue eyes and aquiline nose, of the Circassian and the
Abazan. I contrasted the brilliant calicoes of the Indian, the
well-wrought stuffs of the European, the rich furs of the Siberian, with the tissues of bark, of osiers, leaves, and feathers, of
savage nations; and the blue -figures of serpents, flowers, and
stars, with which they painted their bodies. Sometimes the
variegated appearance of this multitude reminded me of the
enamelled meadows of the Nile and of the Euphrates, when,
after rains or inundations, millions of flowers are rising on every
side; sometimes their murmurs and their motions called to
mind the numberless swarms of locusts which, issuing from the
desert, cover in spring the plains of Hauran.
At the sight of so many rational beings, considering on the
one hand the immensity of ideas and sensations assembled in
this place, and, on the other hand, reflecting on the opposition
of so many opinions, and the shock of so many passions of men
so capricious, I struggled between astonishment, admiration,
and secret dread-when the legislator commanded silence, and
attracted all my attention.
" Inhabitants of earth! a free and powerful nation addresses
you the words of justice and of peace, and offers you the sure
pledges of her intentions in her own conviction and experience.




A8       ~            THE RUINS.
Long afflicted with the same evils as yourselves, we sought for
their source, and found them all derived from violence and injustice, erected into law by the inexperience of past ages, and
maintained by the prejudices of the present; then abolishing
our artificial and arbitrary institutions, and recurring to the origin
of all right and all reason, #e have found that there existed in
the very order of nature, and in the physical constitution of man,
eternal and immutable laws, which only waited his observance
to render him happy. 0 men! cast your eyes on the heavens
that give you light, and on the earth that gives you bread!
Since they offer the same bounties to you all, since from the
power that gives them motion you have all received the same
life, the same organs, have you not all received the same right
to enjoy its benefits? Has it not hereby declared you all equal
and free? What mortal shall dare refuse to his fellow that
which nature gives him? 0 nations! let us banish all tyranny
and all discord; let us form but one society, one great falmily;
and, since human nature has but one constitution, let there exist in future but one law, that of nature-but one code, that of
reason-but one throne, that of justice-but one altar, that of
union."
He ceased; and an immense acclamation resounded to the
skies: ten thousand benedictions announced the transports of
the multitude, and they made the earth re-echo justice, equality, and union. But different emotions soon succeeded; soon
the doctors and the chiefs of nations, exciting a spirit of dispute,
there was heard a sullen murmur, which growing louder, and
spreading from group to group, became a vast disorder; and
each nation, setting up exclusive pretensions, claimed a preference for its own code and opinion.
" You are in error," said the parties, pointing one to the
other; "we alone are in possession of reason and truth. We
alone have the true law, the real rule of right and justice, the
only means of happiness and perfection: all other men are
either blind or rebellious." And great agitation prevailed.
But the legislator, having ordered silence: " People," said
he, " what is that passionate emotion? Whither will that
quarrel conduct you? What can you expect from this dissension? The earth has been for ages a field of disputation, and
you have shed torrents of blood for chimerical opinions: What




THE  RUINS.                      87
have you gained by so many battles and tears?  When the
strong has subjected the weak to his opinion, has he thereby
aided the cause of truth? O nations! take counsel of your
own wisdom! When among yourselves disputes arise between
families and individuals, how do you reconcile them? Do you
not give them arbitrators?" —" Yes," cried the whole multitude. —" Do so, then, to the authors of your present dissensions.
Order those who call themselves your instructors, and who force
their creeds upon you, to discuss before you their reasons.
Since they appeal to your interests, inform yourselves how they
support them. —And you, chiefs and doctors of the people, belbre dragging them into the quarrels of your opinions, let the
reasons for and against them be discussed. Let us establish
one solemn controversy, one public scrutiny of truth-not before the tribunal of a corruptible individual, or a prejudiced
party, but in the forum of mankind, presided by all their information and all their interests. Let the natural sense of the
whole human race be our arbiter and judge."
CHAPTER XX.
THE SEARCH OF TRUTH.
THE people expressed their applause, and the legislator said:
"' To proceed with order, and avoid all confusion, let a spacious
semicircle be left vacant in front of the altar of peace and union;
let each system of religion, and each particular sect, erect its
proper distinctive standard on the line of this semicircle; let its
chiefs and doctors place themselves around the standard, and
their followers formt a column behind themn."
The semicircle being traced, and the order published, there
instantly rose an innumerable multitude of standards, of all colors and of every form, like what we see in a great commercial
port, when, on a day of rejoicing, a thousand different flags and
streamers are floating from a forest of masts. At sight of this
prodigious diversity, turning toward the Genius —" I thought,"
said I, "that the earth was divided only into eight or ten sys



IAMB                  THE RUINS.
tefrts of faith, and I then despaired of a reconciliation: now tbha
I behold thousands of different sects, how can I hope for con
cord?"-" But these," replied the Genius, "are-not all; and
yet they will.be intolerant!"
Then, as, the groups advanced to take their stations, he pointed out to me their distinctive marks, and thus began to explain
their characters:1" That first group," said he, " with a green banner, bearing a
crescent, a bandage, and a sabre, are the followers of the Arabian prophet. To say there is a God (without knowing what
he is); to believe the words of a man (without understanding'
his language); to go into the desert to pray to God (who is
everywhere); to wash the hands with water (and not abstain
from blood); to fast all day (and eat all night); to give alms of
their own goods (and to plunder those of others): such are the
means of perfection instituted by Mahomet-such are the symbols of his followers. Whoever does not adopt them is a reprobate, stricken with anathema, and devoted to the sword. A
merciful God, the author of life, has instituted these laws of
oppression and murder: he made them for all the world, but
has revealed them only to one man; he established them from
all eternity, though he made them known but yesterday; they
are abundantly sufficient for all purposes, and yet a volume is
added to them: this volume was to.diffuse light, to exhibit evidence, to lead men to perfection and happiness, and yet every
page was so full of obscurities, ambiguities, and contradictions,
that commentaries and explanations became necessary, even in
the lifetime of its apostles; and its interpreters, differing in
opinion, divided into opposite and haostile sects. One maintains
that Ali is the true successor; the other contends for Omar and
Aboubekre. This denies the eternity of the Koran; that the
necessity of ablutions and prayers. The Carmate forbids pilgrimages, and allows the use of wine; the Hakemike preaches
the transmigration of souls. Thus they make up the number
of seventy-two sects, whose banners are before you. In this
contestation, every one attributing the evidence of truth exclusively to himself, and taxing all others with heresy and rebellion, turns against them his sanguinary zeal. And their religion,
which celebrates a mild and merciful God, the common father
all men, converted to a torch of discord, a signal for war and




THE  RUINS.                       89
murder, has not ceased for twelve hundred years to deluge the
earth in blood,* and to ravage and desolate the ancient hemisphere from one end to the other.
"Those men, distinguished by their enormous white turbans,
their broad sleeves, and their long rosaries, are the Imams, the
Mollas, and the Mufties; and near them are the dervices, with
pointed bonnets, and the Santons, with dishevelled hair. Behold with what vehemence they recite their professions of faith
They'are now beginning a dispute about the greater and lesser
impurities; about the matter and the manner of ablutions
about the attributes of God and his perfections; about the chaitan, and the good and wicked angels; about death, the resurrection, the interrogatory in the tomb, the judgment, the passage
of the bridge not broader than a hair, the balance of works, the
pains of hell, and the joys of paradise.
"Next to these, that second, more numerous group, with
white banners intersected with crosses, are the followers of Jesus. Acknowledging the same God with the Mussulmans, founding their belief on the same books, admitting, like them, a first
man who damned the human race by eating an apple, they hold
them, however, in a holy abhorrence, and out of pure piety they
call each other impious blasphemers. The great point of their
dissension consists in this, that, after admitting a God one and
indivisible, the Christian divides him into three persons, each
of which he believes to be a complete and entire God, without
ceasing to constitute an identical whole, by the indivisibility of
the three. And he adds, that this being, who fills the universe,
has dwindled into the body of a man, and has assumed material,
perishable, and limited organs, without ceasing to be immaterial,
infinite, and eternal. The Mussulman, who does not comprehend these mysteries, rejects them as follies, and the visions of
a distempered brain, though he conceives perfectly well the
eternity of the Koran and the mission of the prophet; hence
their implacable hatreds.
* Read the history of Islamism by its own writers, and you will be
convinced that one of the principal causes of the wars which have deso.
lated Asia and Africa since the days of Mahomet, has bemn the'pos.
tolical fanaticism of its doctrine. Cesar has been supposed to have
destroyed three millions of men; it would be interesting to make a
similar calculation respecting every founder of a religious system
8*




9(                    r'~lTHE  RUINS.
"Again, the Christians, divided among themselvs on many
points, have formed parties not less violent than the Mussulmans;
and their quarrels are so much the more obstinate, as the objects of them are inaccessible to the senses, and incapable of
demonstration: their opinions, therefore, have no other basis
but the will and caprice of the parties. Thus, while they agree
that God is a being incomprehensible and unknown, they dispute, nevertheless, about his essence, his mode of acting, and
his attributes: while they agree that his pretended transformation into a man is an enigma above the human understanding,
they dispute on the junction or distinction of his two wills and
his two natures, on his change of substance, on the real or fictitious presence, on the mode of incarnation, etc., etc.
1 Hence thbse innumerable sects, of which two or three hundred have already perished, and three or four hundred others,
which still subsist, display those numberless banners which here
distract your sight.  The first in order, surrounded by a group
mn various fantastic dress-that confused mixture of violet, red,
white, black, and speckled garments-with heads shaved, with
tonsures, or with short hair-with red hats, square bonnets,
pointed mitres, or long beards —is the standard of the Roman —
pontiff, who, uniting the civil government to the priesthood, has
erected the supremacy of his city into a point of religion, and
made of his pride an article of faith.
"On his right you see the Greek pontiff, who, proud of the
rivalship of his metropolis, sets up equal pretensions, and supports them against the Western church by the priority of that
of the East. On the left are the standards of two recent chiefs,*
who, shaking off a yoke that had become tyrannical, have raised
altar against altar in their reform, and wrested half of Europe
from the pope. Behind these are the subaltern sects, subdivided
from  the principal divisions, the Nestorians, the Eutycheans,
the Jacobites, the Iconoclasts, the Anabaptists, the Presbyterians, the Wicliffites, the Osiandrians, the Manicheans, the Pietists, the Adamites, the Contemplatives, the Quakers, the Weepers, and a hundred others,f all of distinct parties, persecuting
when strong, tolerant when weak, hating each other in the
Luther and Calvin.
t Consult, upon this subject, Dictionnaire des Heresies par'abbe PYl
quet, who has omitted a great number, in 2 vols. octavo.




THE RUINS.                       91
name of a God of peace, forming each an exclusive heaven in a
religion of universal charity, dooming each other to pains with.
out end in a future state, and. realizing in this world the imagi.
nary hell. of the other."
After this group, observing a solitary standard of the color of
hyacinth, round: which were assembled men of all the different
dresses of Europe and Asia,',At least," said I to the Genius,.
&"we shall find unanimity here."
"Yes," said- he,'" at first sight, and by a momentary accident'
do you not know that system of worship?"
Then, perceiving in Hebrew letters the monogram of the
name of God, and the palms which the rabbins held in their
hands, 1" True," said I, "these are the children of Moses, dispersed even to this day, abhorring every nation, and abhorred
and persecuted by all."
"-Yes," he replied, "' and for this reason; that, having neither
time nor liberty to dispute,. they have the appearance of unanimity; but no sooner will, they come together, compare their
principles, and reason on their opinions,, than they will separate,.
as formerly, at least into two principal sects;* one of which,
taking advantage of the silence of their legislator, and adhering
to the literal sense of his books, will deny everything that is not
clearly expressed therein, and on this principle will reject, as
inventions of the circumcised, the immortality of the soul, its
transmigration to places of pain or pleasure, its resurrection,
the final judgment, the good and bad angels, the revolt of the
evil Genius, and all the poetical system of a world to come:
and this highly-favored people, whose perfection consists in cutting off a little piece of skin-this atom of a people, which forms
but a wave in the ocean of mankind, and which insists that God
has made nothing but for them-will by its schism reduce to
one half its present trifling weight in the scale of the universe."
He then showed me a neighboring group, composed of men
dressed in white robes, wearing a veil over their mouths, and
ranged around a banner of the color of the morning sky, on
which was painted a globe cut into two hemispheres, black and
white: " The same thing will happen," said he, " to these
children of Zoroaster, the obscure remnants of a people once
-so powerful; at present, persecuted, like the Jews, and- disS The Sadducees and the Pharisees.




92                      THE  RUINS.
persed among other nations, they receive without discussion
the precepts of the representative of their prophet; but, as soon
as the mobed and the destours shall assemble, they will renew
the controversy about the good and the bad principle; on the
combats of Ormuzd, god of light, and Ahrimanes, god of dark
ness; on the direct and allegorical sense; on the good and evil
genii; on the worship of fire and the elements; on impurities
and ablutions; on the resurrection of the soul and body, or only
of the soul; on the renovation of the present world, and on
that which is to take its place. And the Parses will divide into
sects,* so much the more numerous, as during their dispersion
their families will have contracted the manners and opinions of
foreign nations.
" Next to these, remark those banners of an azure ground,
painted with monstrous figures of human bodies, double, triple,
quadruple, with heads of lions, boars, and elephants, with tails
of fishes,,tortoises, etc.; these are the ensigns of the sects of
India, who find their gods in various animals, and the souls of
their fathers in reptiles and insects. These men endow hospi:
tals for hawks, serpents, and rats; and they abhor their fellowcreatures! They purify themselves with the dung and urine
of cows, and think themselves defiled by the touch of a man!
They wear a net over the mouth, for fear of swallowing, in a
fly, a soul in a state of penance, and they can see a paria perish
with hunger! They acknowledge the same gods, but they
separate into hostile bands.
A" The first standard, retired from the rest, bearing a figure
with four heads, is that of Brahma, who, though the creator of
the universe, is without temples or followers; but, reduced to
serve as a pedestals to the Lingam, he contents himself with a
little water, which the brahmin throws every morning on his
shoulder, reciting an idle canticle in his praise.
"The second, bearing a kite with a scarlet body and a white
* The followers of Zoroaster, called Parses, because they are descended
from the Persians, are better known in Asia by the opprobrious name of
Gaures or Guebres, which means infidels: they are in Asia what the Jews
are in Europe. The name of their pope or high priest is mobed. See,
respecting the rites of this religion, Henry Lord, Hyde, and the Zend.
Avesta.
t See Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes vol. i.




THE  RUINS.                        93
head, is that of Vichenou, who, though preserver of the world,
has passed part of his life in wicked actions. You sometimes
see him under the hideous form of a boar or a lion tearing
human entrails, or under that of a horse shortly to come armed
with a sabre to destroy all that has life, to extinguish the stars,
annihilate the planets, shake the earth, and force the great serpent to vomit a fire which shall consume the spheres.
A" The third is that of Chiven, god of desolation and destruction, who has, however, for his emblem  the symbol of generation: he is the wickedest of the three, and he has the most
followers. These men, proud of his character, express in their
devotions to him their contempt for the other gods,* his equals
and brothers; and, in imitation of his inconsistencies, while
they profess great modesty and chastity, they publicly crown
with flowers, and sprinkle with milk and honey, the obscene
image of the Lingam.
"' In the rear of these approach the smaller standards of a multitude of gods, male, female, and hermaphrodite; these are
friends and relations of the three principal gods, and have passed
their lives in wars among themselves; and their followers imitate them. These gods have need of nothing, and they are
constantly receiving presents; they are omnipotent and omnipresent, and a brahmin by muttering a few words shuts them
up in an idol, or a pitcher, to sell their favors for his own
benefit.
"' Beyond these, that cloud of standards, which, on a yellow
ground, common to them all, bear various emblems, are those
of the same god, who reigns under different names in the nations
of the East. The Chinese adores him in Fot,t the Japanese in
* When a sectary of Chiven hears the name of Vichenou pronounced,
he stops his ears, runs away, and purifies himself.
t The Chinese language having neither b nor d, that people pronounces
Fot what the Indians and Persians call Bodd, or Boudd (with short ou).
Fot, in Pegu. changes into Fota and Fta, etc. It is only within a few
years that we begin to have exact notions of the doctrine of Boudd and
of his various sectaries; and we are indebted for them to the learned men
of England, who, according as their nation subdues the people of India,
study their religions and manners in ordtr to make them known. The
work entitled Asiatic Researches is a precious collection of the kind: we
find in volume vi., page 163, in volume vii., page 32 and page 399, three
instructive memoirs concerning the Bouddists of Ceylon, and of Birmah




THIE RUINS.
Budso, the inhabitant of Ceylon in Bedhou and Boudah, of
Laos in Chekia, the Peguan in Phta, the Siamese in SommonaKodom, the Tibetan in Boudd and in La; agreeing in some
points of his history, they all celebrate his life of penitence, his
mortifications, his fastings, his functions of mediator and expiator, the enmity between him and another god, his adversary,
their battles, and his ascendency. But as they disagree on the
means of pleasing him, they dispute about rites and ceremonies,
and about the dogmas of interior doctrine and of public doctrine.
That Japanese bonze, with a yellow robe, and naked head,
preaches the eternity of souls, and their successive transmigrations into various bodies; near him, the Sintoist denies that
souls can exist separate fromn the senses,* and maintains that
they are only the effect of the organs to which they belong,
and with which they must perish, as the sound with the musical instrument. Near him, the Siamese, with his eyebrows
shaved, and a talipat screen in his hand,f recommends alms,
offerings: and expiations, and yet believes in blind necessity and
inexorable fate. The Chinese hochang sacrifices to the souls
of his ancestors; and next him, the follower of Confuciust interrogates his destiny in the cast of dice and the movement of
the stars. That child, surrounded by a, swarm of priests in yellow robes and hats, is the grand lama,lI in whom the god of
or Ava. An anonymous writer, but who appears to have meditated this
subject, has published in the Asiatic Journal of 1816, month of January,
and following, until May, letters which promise further details of the
highest interest. We shall resume this subject in a note to chapter xxi.
I See, in Kempfer, the doctrine of the Sintoists, which is a mixture of
that of Epicurus and the Stoics.
t It is a leaf of the latanier species of the palm-tree; hence the Bonzes
of Siam take the apellation of Talapoin. The use of this screen is an
exclusive privilege.
t The sectaries of Confucius are no less addicted to astrology than the
Bonzes. It is, indeed, the moral malady of every eastern nation.
II Is the same person whom we find mentioned in our old books of
travels by the name of Prester-John, from a corruption of the Persian
word djehan, which signifies the world. Thus the priest World and the
god World are intimately connected.
In a recent expedition, the English have found certain idols of the La.
mnas filled in the inside with sacred pastels from the close stool of the
high priest. The fact is attested by Hastings,'and Colonel Pollier, who




THE  RUINS.                         9
Tibet has just become incarnate. But a rival has arisen, who
partakes this benefit with him; and the Kalmouc on the banks
of Lake Baikal has a God similar to the inhabitant of Lasa;
but they agree, however, in one important point-that god can
inhabit only a human body; they both laugh at the stupidity
of the Indian who pays homage to cowdung, though they themselves consecrate the excrements of their high priest."
After these, a crowd of other banners, which no man could
number, came forward into sight; and the Genius exclaimed:
" I should never finish the detail of all the systems of faith which
divide these nations. Here the hordes of the Tartars adore, in
the form of beasts, birds, and insects, the good and evil genii,
who, under a principal, but indolent god, govern the universe;
in their idolatry they call to mind the ancient paganism of the
west.  You observe the fantastical dress of their chamans, who,
under a robe of leather hung round with bells and rattles, idols
of iron, claws of birds, skins of snakes, and heads of owls, are
agitated by factitious convulsions, and invoke with magical cries
the dead to deceive the living. There the black tribes of Africa
exhibit the same opinions in the worship of their fetiches. See
the inhabitant of Juida worship god in a great snake,* which,
unluckily, the swine delight to eat. The Teleuteant attires his
god in a coat of several colors, like a Russian soldier. The
perished in the troubles of Avignon. It will be very extraordinary to
observe, that this disgusting ceremony is connected with a profound
philosophical system, to wit, that of the metempsychosis, admitted by
the Lamas. When the Tartars swallow the sacred relics of the pontiff
(which they are accustomed to do), they imitate the laws of the universe, the parts of which are incessantly absorbed and pass into the sub.
stance of each other. It is the serpent devouring his tail; and this serpent is Boudd and the world.
I It frequently happens that the swine devour the very species of ser.
pents adored by the negroes, and this occasions great desolation in the
country. President de Brosses has given us in his history of the Fetiches
a curious collection of absurdities of this nature.
t The Teleuteans, a Tartar nation, paint God as wearing a vesture of
all colors, particularly red and green; and, as these constitute the uni.
form of the Russian dragoons, they compare him to this description of
soldiers. The Egyptians also dress the god World in a garment of every
color. Eusebius, Prep. Evang., p. 115, book iii. The Teleuteans call God
Bou, which is only an alteration of Boudd, the god Egg and World.




96                     THE RUINS.
Kamchadale,* observing that everything goes wrong in his fro
zen climate, considers him as an old, ill-natured man, smoking
his pipe, and hunting foxes and martins in his sledge; but you
may still behold a hundred savage nations who have none of the
ideas of civilized people respecting God, the soul, another
world, and a future life; who have formed no system of worship,
and who, nevertheless, enjoy the gifts of nature in the irreligion
in which she has created them."
CHAPTER XXI.
PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS CONTRADICTIONS.
THE various groups having taken their places, an unbounded
silence succeeded to the murmurs of the multitude, and the
legislator said: " Chiefs and doctors of mankind! you remark
how the nations, living apart, have hitherto followed different
paths, each believing its own to be that of truth. If, however
truth is one, and opinions are various, it is evident that some
are in error. If, then, such vast numbers of us are in the wrong,
who shall dare to say,'I am in the right?' Begin, therefore,
by being indulgent in your dissensions. Let us all seek truth
as if no one possessed it. The opinions which to this day have
governed the world, originating from chance, propagated in obscurity, admitted without discussion, accredited by a love of
novelty and imitation, have usurped their empire in a clandestine manner. It is time, if they are well founded, to give a
solemn stamp to their certainty, and legitimate their existence.
Let us summon them this day to a general scrutiny, let each
propound his creed, let the whole assembly be the judge, and
let that alone be acknowledged true which is so for the whole
human race."
Then, by order of position, the first standard on the left was
allowed to speak: "You are not permitted to doubt," said their
t Consult upon this subject a work entitled, Description des peuples sou.
mis a la Russie, and it will be found that the picture is not overcharged




TH19 RUINS.                        97
chiefs, "that oar doctrine is the only true and infallible one.
First, it is revealed by God himself."
" So is ours," cried all the other standards, "and you are not
permitted to doubt it."
1"But, at least," said the legislator, "you must prove it; for
we can not believe what we do not know."
" Our doctrine is proved," replied the first standard, " by numerous facts: by a multitude of miracles, by resurrections of
the dead, by rivers dried up, by mountains removed," etc.
1" And we, also," cried all the others, "we have numberless
miracles;" and each began to recount the most incredible
things.
" Their miracles," said the first standard, "are imaginary, or
the fictions of the evil spirit, who has deluded them."
" They are yours," said the others, "'that are imaginary;"
and each group, speaking of itself, cried out: " None but ours
are true; all the others are false."
The legislator asked: "Have you living witnesses?"
" No," replied they all; " the facts are ancient, the witnesses
are dead, but their writings remain."
i" Be it so," replied the legislator; " but if they contradict
each other, who shall reconcile them?"'" Just judge!" cried one of the standards, " the proof that
our witnesses have seen the truth is, that they died to confirm
it, and our faith is sealed with the blood of martyrs."
" And ours too," said the other standards; "we have thousands of martyrs who died in the most excruciating torments,
without ever denying the truth." Then the Christians of every
sect, the Mussulmans, the Indians, the Japanese, recited endless
legends of confessors, martyrs, penitents, etc.
And one of these parties having denied the martyrology of
the others —" Well," said they, "we will then die ourselves to
prove the truth of our belief."
And instantly a crowd of men, of every religion and of every
sect, presented themselves to suffer the torments of death.
MlIany even began to tear their arms, and to beat their heads and
breasts, without discovering any symptom of pain.
But the legislator, preventing them-;, O men!" said he,
"hear my words with patience: if you die to prove that two
IV




98                    THE RUINS.
and two make four, will your death render this truth more evident?"
"No," answered all.
"And if you die to prove that they make five, will that make
tbem five?"
Again they all answered, " No."
"What, then, is your persuasion to prove, if it changes not
the existence of things?  Truth is one-your persuasions are
various; many of you, therefore, are in error. Now, if man,
as is evident, can persuade himself of error, what does his persuasion prove?
" If error has its martyrs, what is the criterion of truth?
" If the evil spirit works miracles, what is the distinctive character of God?
"Besides, why resort for ever to incomplete and insufficient
miracles? Instead of changing the course of nature, why not
rather change opinions? Why murder and terrify men, instead
of instructing and correcting them?
"0  credulous, but opiniated mortals! none of us know what
was done yesterday, what is even doing to-day under our eyes,
and we swear to what was done two thousand years ago!
"Oh, the weakness, and yet the pride of men! The laws
of nature are immutable and profound, our minds are full ot
illusion and frivolity, and yet we would comprehend everything,
determine everything! Verily, it is easier for the whole human race to be in an error, than to change the nature of an
atom."
"Well, then," said one of the doctors, "let us lay aside th,
evidence of fact, since it is uncertain; let us come to argument
the proofs inherent in the doctrine."
Then came forward, with a look of confidence, an Imam ot
the law of Mahomet; and, having advanced into the circle
turned toward Mecca, and recited with great fervor his confes
sion of faith: "Praised be God," said he, with a solemn ane
imposing voice; " the light shineth with full evidence, and truth
has no need of examination."  Then showing the Koran"Here," said he, " is the light of truth in its proper essence.
There is no doubt in this book; it conducts with safety him
who walks in darkness, and who receives without discussion the
divine word which descended on the prophet to save the simple




THE. Rt.INS.                      99
and confound thg wise.  Gqdl has. established Mahomet his
minister. on earth; hq hbas given hint the world, that he may
subdue with the, s9ord whoever shall refuse to receive his law,
Infidels dispute, and will not believe  their obduracy come;
fro.m God, who has hardened their hearts to deliver them to
dreadful punishmepts —."*
At these words, a violent murmur arose on all sides, and silenced the speaker.  "Who is this man," cried all the groups,
"who thus gratuitously insults us?  What right has he to impose his creed on us as conqueror and tyrant?  Has not God
endowed us, as well as him, with eyes, understanding, and reason? And have we not an equal right to use them, in choosing
what to believe and what to reject?  If he attacks us, shall we
not defend ourselves?  If he likes to believe without examination, must we therefore not examine before we believe?
"And what is this, luminous doctrine that fears the light?
What is this apostlq of a God of clemency, who preaches. nothig but m.urder and carnage?  What is this God of justices
who punishes blindness which he, himself has made?  If violence and persecution are the arguments of truth, must gentleness and charity be looked on as signs of falsehood?"
A man then advancing from a neighboring group, said to. the
Imam:',Admitting that- Mahomet is the apostle of the best
doctrine, the prophet of the true religion, haye the goodues4
at least to tell us, in thq practice of his doctrine, whether we.
are to follow his sqn-in-law Ali, or. his vicars Omar and Aboubekre?"t
At the sound of these enam, a terible schism arose aBpong
the Mussulmans themselves: the pamrtisns of Omar and of Alit
calling out hertics and. blasphngras, loaded each other with
execrations. The quarrel becamna  sp violent that tle:neighboring groups were obliged to interfere to prevent their coming to.
blows.
At length, tranquillity being somewhat restored, the legislator.
said to the Imams: "See the, consequences of your principles!
If you yourselves wereto carry them into practice, you would
* This passage. contains the sense, and nearly the very words, of the
list chapter of the Koran.
f These are. the two, gland parties, into. which the ]hssulmans are di.
vided. The Turks have embraced the second, the. Persian the.first.




100                   THE RUINS.
Sestroy each other to the last man. Is it not the first law of
God that man should live?" Then addressing himself to the
other groups: "Doubtless," said he, " this intolerant and exclusive spirit shocks every idea of justice, and overturns the
whole foundation of morale and society; but before we totally
reject this code of doctrine, is it not proper to hear some of its
dogmas, in order not to pronounce on the forms, without having
some knowledge of the substance?"
The groups having consented, the Imam began to expound
how God, after having sent to the nations, lost in idolatry, twenty-four thousand prophets, had finally sent the last, the seal and
perfection of all, Mahomet, on whom be the salvation of peace;
how, to prevent'the divine word from being any longer perverted
by infidels, the supreme bounty had itself written the pages of
the Koran. Then explaining the particular dogmas of Islamism, the Imam unfolded how the Koran, partaking of the divine
nature, was increate and eternal, like its author: how it had
been sent leaf by leaf in twenty-four thousand nocturnal apparitions of the angel Gabriel: how the angel announced himself
by a gentle knocking, which threw the prophet into a cold
sweat: how, in the vision of one night, he had travelled over
ninety heavens, riding on the animal boraq-half a horse and
half a woman: how, endowed with'the gift of miracles, he
walked in the sunshine without a shadow, turned dry trees to
green, filled wells and cisterns with water, and split in two the
body of the moon: how, by divine command, Mahomet had
propagated, sword in hand, the religion the most worthy of God
By its sublimity, and the best adapted for man by the simplicity
of its practice, since it consisted in only eight o; ten points: to
profess the unity of God; to acknowledge Mahomet as his only
prophet; to pray five times a day; to fast one month in the
year; to go to Mecca once in our life; to pay the tenth of all
we possess; to drink no wine; to eat no pork; and to make
war upon the infidels. He taught that by these means every
Mussulman, becoming himself an apostle and a martyr, should
enjoy in this world many blessings, and at his death his soul,
weighed in the balance of works, and absolved by the two black
angels, should pass the infernal pit on the bridge as narrow as a
sair and as sharp as the edge of a sword, and should finally be
received to a region of delight, watered -with rivers of milk and




THE  RUINS.                     10'
honey, and embalmed in all the perfumes of India and Arabia;
and where the celestial houris, virgins always chaste, are eternally crowning with repeated favors the elect of God, who preserve an eternal youth.
At these words, an involuntary smile was seen on every countenance; and the various groups, reasoning on these articles of
faith, exclaimed with one voice: " Is it possible that reasonable
beings can admit such reveries? Would not you think it a
chapterfrom the Arabian Nights?"
A Samoyede advanced into the circle: "The paradise of
Mahomet," said he, "-appears very desirable; but one of the
means of gaining it is embarrassing: for if we must neither
eat nor drink between the rising and setting sun, as he has ordered, how are we to practise that fast in my country, where
the sun continues above the horizon four months without set
ting?"
" That is impossible," cried all the Mussulman doctors, to
support the honor of the prophet; but a hundred nations having attested the fact, the infallibility of Mahomet could not but
receive a severe shock.
"It is singular," said an European, " that God should be constantly revealing what takes place in heaven, without ever instructing us what is'doing on the earth!"
"For my part," said an American, "I find a great difficulty
in the pilgrimage; for suppose twenty-five years to a generation, and only a hundred millions of males on the globe-each
being obliged to go to Mecca once in his life-there must be
four millions a year on the journey; and as it would be impracticable for them to return the same year, the numbers would be
doubled-that is, eight millions: where would you find provisions, lodging, water, vessels, for this universal procession?
Here must be miracles indeed!"
"The proof," said a catholic doctor, "that the religion of
Mahomet is not revealed, is, that the greater part of the ideas
which serve for its basis existed a long time before, and that it
is only a confused mixture of truths disfigured and taken from
our holy religion and from that of the Jews; which an ambitious man has made to serve his projects of domination and his
worldly views. Peruse his book, you will see nothing there but
the histories of the Bible and the gospel travestied into absurd
9*




~102                  *'ITHE  RUINS.
fables-a tissue of vague and contradictory de'ltitnration, and
ridiculous or dangerous precepts. Analyze the spirit of these
precepts, and the conduct of their apostle, you will find there
an artful and audacious character, which, to obtain its'nd,
works ably, it is true, on the passionis of the people it had to
govern.  Speaking to simple and credulous men, it entet'taina
them with miracles; they are ignorant and jealous, and it flatters their vanity by despising science; tliey are poor and rapacious, and it excites their cupidity by the hope of pillage; having nothing at first to give them  on earth, it tells themn of
treasures in heaven; it teaches them  to desire death as the
supreme good; it threatens cowards with hell; it rewards the
brave with paradise; it sustains the Weak with the opinion of
fatality; in short, it produces the attachment it wants by all the
allurements of sense and all the power of the passions.' How different is the character of our religion! and how
completely does its eminpire, founded on the counteraction of our
natural inclinations, and the mortification of all our passiomn.,
prove its divine origin! How forcibly does its mild and compassionate morality, its affections altogether spiritual, attest its
emanatibon from the divinity! Many of its doctrines, it is ti;rue,
soar above the reach of the understanding, and impose on reason a respectful silence; but this more fully demonstrates its
revelation, since the human mind could never have imagined
such mysteries." Then, holding the Bible in onre hand and the
four Gospels in the other, the doctor began to relate, that, in
the beginning God (after having passed an eternity in inaction)
took the resolution, without any known cause, of making the
world out of nothing; that having created the whole universe
in six'days, he found himself fatigued on the seventh; that
having placed the first hulman pair in a garden of delights, to
make them completely happy, he forbade their tasting a particular fruit which he left within their reach; that these first
parents, having yielded to the temptation, all their race (yet unborn) had been condemned to bear the penalty of a fault which
they had not committed; that, after having left the human race
to damn themselves for tour or five thotisand years, this God of
mercy ordered a dearly beloved son, whom he had engendered
without a mother, and who was as old as himself, to go and be
put to death on the earth: and this for the salvation of mari



THE RUINS.                       103
kind, of whom much the greater portion, nevertheless, have
ever since continued in the way of perdition; that to remedy
this new difficulty, this same God, born of a virgin, having died
and risen from the dead, assumes a new existence every day,
and in the form of a piece of bread, multiplies himself by millions at the voice of one of the vilest of men: then passing on
to the doctrine of the sacraments, he was going to treat at large
of the power of absolution and reprobation, of the means of
purging all sins Dy a little water and a few words, when, uttering the words indulgence, power of the pope, sufficient or effi
cacious grace, he was interrupted by a thousand cries: "It is
a horrible abuse," exclaimed the Lutherans, 1" to pretend to re-'
mit sins for money."-" The notion of the real presence," cried
the Calvinists, "is contrary to the text of the gospel."-" The
pope has no right to decide anything of himself," cried the Jansenists; and thirty other sects rising up and accusing. each other
of heresy and error, it was no longer possible.to hear anything
distinctly.
Silence being at last restored, the Mussulmans observed to
the legislator: "Since you have rejected our doctrine as containing things incredible, can you admit that of the Christians?
Is not theirs still more contrary to common sense and justice?
-a God, immaterial and infinite, to become a man! to have a
son as old as himself! this god-man to become bread-to be
eaten and digested! Have we anything equal to that?  Have
the Christians an exclusive right to exact implicit faith? And
will you grant them privileges of belief to our detriment?"
Some savage'tribes then advanced: " What!" said they,
"because a man and woman ate an apple six thousand years
ago, all the human race are damned! and you call God just!
What tyrant ever rendered children responsible for the faults
of their fathers? What man can answer for another's actions?
Is not this subversive of every idea of justice and of reason?"
Others exclaimed: "Where are the proofs, the witnesses, ot
these pretended facts?  Can we receive them without examining the evidence? The least action in a court of justice requires two witnesses i and we are ordered Xf believe all this on
mere tradition and hearsay!"
A Jewish rabbin then addressing the assembly, said: "As to
the. fundamental facts we are sureties; but with regard to their




104                    THE  RUINS.
form and application, the case is different, and the Christians
are here condemned by their own arguments: for they can not
deny that we are the original source from which they are derived-the primitive stock on which they are grafted; and hence
the reasoning is very short: either our law is from God, and
then theirs is a heresy, since it differs from ours, or our law is
not from God, and then theirs fall at the same time."
"But you must make this distinction," replied the Christian:," your law is from God, as typical and preparative, but not as
final and absolute; you are the image of which we are the substance."
"We know," replied the rabbin, "that such are your pretensions; but they are absolutely gratuitous and false. Your system turns altogether on mystical* meanings, on visionary and
allegorical interpretations: with violent distortions on the letter
of our books, you substitute the most chimerical ideas to the
true ones, and find in them whatever pleases you, as a wild imagination will find figures in the clouds. Thus you have made
a spiritual Messiah of that which, in the spirit of our prophets.
is only a temporal king; you have made a redemption of the
human race out of the simple re-establishment of our nation:
your conception of the virgin is founded on a single phrase, which
you have misunderstood. Thus you make from our Scriptures
whatever your fancy dictates-you even find there your trinity,
though there is not the most distant allusion to it, and it is an
invention of profane writers, admitted into your system with a
host of other opinions, of every religion and of every sect, during
the anarchy of the first three centuries of your era."
At these words, the Christian doctors, crying sacrilege and
blasphemy, sprang forward in a transport of fury to fall upon
the Jew. And a troop of monks, in motley dresses of black
and white, advanced with a standard, on which were painted
pincers, gridirons, lighted fagots, and the words justice, chari* When we read the Fathers of the church, and see upon what argu.
ments they have built the edifice of religion, we are inexpressibly aston.
ished with their credulity or their knavery; but allegory was the rage of
that period: the pagans employed it to explain the actions of their gods
and the Christians acted in the same spirit when they employed it in an.
other manner. It would be interesting to publish now such books, or only
extracts from them.




THE RUINS.                      105
ty, mercy; 1" we must," said they, "make an example of these
impious wretches, and burn them for the glory of God." They
began even to prepare the pile, when a Mussulman answered in
a strain of irony:"This, then, is your religion of peace, that meek and beneficent system which you so much extol! This is that evangelical charity which combats infidelity with persuasive mildness.
and repays injuries with patience! Ye hypocrites! it is thus
that you deceive mankind, thus that you propagate your accursed errors! When you were weak, you preached liberty,
toleration, peace; when you are strong, you practise persecution and violence-"
And he was going to begin the history of the wars and slaugh
ters of Christianity, when the legislator, demanding silence, suspended this scene of discord.
The monks, affecting a tone of meekness and humility, exclaimed, "It is not ourselves that we avenge, it is the cause of
God, it is his glory that we defend."
"' And what right have you, more than we," said the Imams,
"to constitute yourselves the representatives of God?  Have
you privileges that we have not? Are you not men like us?"
"To defend God," said another group, "to pretend to avenge
him, is to insult his wisdom and his power. Does he not know
better than men what befits his dignity?"
"Yes," replied the monks; " but his ways are secret."
"And it remains for you to prove," said the rabbins, "that
you have the exclusive privilege of understanding them."
Then, proud of finding supporters to their cause, the Jews
thought that their law would be triumphant, when the mobed
(high priest) of the Parses obtained leave to speak:" We have heard," said he, "the account of the Jews and
Christians of the origin of the world; and, though greatly mutilated, we find in it some facts which we admit; but we deny
that they are to be attributed to their prophet Moses, first, because it can not be shown that the books which bear his name
were really his; we can prove, on the contrary, by twenty positive passages, that they were written at least six centuries later,
and proceed evidently from the connivance of a high priest and
a king, both well known: #ext, if you examine attentively the
laws, the ceremonies, the precepts, established by Moses in




106t                  THE RUINS.
those books, you will not find the slightest indication, either
expressed or understood, of what constitutes the bases of the
present theological doctrine of the Jews, and of their children
the Christians. You nowhere find the least trace of the immortality of the soul, or of a future life, or of heaven, or of hell, or
of the revolt of the principal angel, author of the evils of the
human race, etc.
" These ideas were not known to Moses, and the reason is
very obvious, since it was not till two centuries afterward that
our prophet Zerdoust, named Zoroaster, first evangelized them
in Asia. Thus," added the mobed, turning to the rabbins, " it
is not till after that epoch, that is to say, in the time of your
first kings, that these ideas begin to appear in your writers; and
then their appearance is obscure and gradual, according to the
progress of the political relations between your ancestors and
ours. It was especially when, having been conquered by the
kings of Nineveh and Babylon, and transported to the banks of
the Tygris and Euphrates, they resided there for three successive generations, that they imbibed manners and opinions which
had been rejected as contrary to their law. When our king
Cyrus had delivered them from slavery, disciples and imitators,
the most distinguished families, whom  the kings of Babylon
had got instructed in the Chaldean sciences, carried back to Jerusalem new ideas and foreign tenets.
"At first the mass of the people, who had not emigrated,
pleaded the text of the law and the absolute silence of' the
prophet; but the Pharisean or Parse doctrine prevailed, and,
being modified according to the ideas and genius of your nation,
gave rise to a new sect. You expected a king to restore your
political independence;' we announced a God to regenerate
and save mankind: fron this combination of ideas, your Essenians laid the foundation of Christianity: and whatever your
pretensions may be, Jews, Christians, Mussulmans, you are, in
your systems of spiritual beings, only the blundering followers
of Zoroaster!"
The mobed, then passing on to the details of his religion,
quoting from the Sad-der and the Zend-Avesta, recounted, in
the same order as Genesis, the creation of the world in six
gahans; the formation of a first mano and a first woman in a divine place, under the reign of good; the introduction of evi




THE  RUtINS.                       107
into the world by the great snake, emblem of Ahrimanes; the
revolt and battles of the genius of evil and darkness against Ormuzd, god of good and light; the division of the angels into white
and black, or good and bad; their hierarchal orders, cherubim,
seraphim, thrones, dominions, etc.; the end of the world at the
close of six thousand years; the coming of the lamb, the regenerator of nature; the new world; the future life, and the
regions of happiness and misery; the passage of souls over the
bridge of the bottomless pit; the celebration of the mysteries
of Mythras; the unleavened bread which the initiated eat; the
baptism of new-born children; the unction of the dead, the
confession of sins; and, in a word, he recited so many things
analogous to the three religions* before mentioned, that it seemed
like a commentary or a continuation of the Koran and the Apocalypse.
But the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan doctors, crying
out against this recital, and treating the Parses as idolaters and
worshippers of fire, charged them with falsehood, interpolations,
falsification of facts; and there arose a violent dispute as to the
dates of the events, their order and succession, the origin of the
doctrines, their transmission from nation to nation, the authenticity of the books that established them, the epoch of their
composition, the character of their compilers, and the validity
of their testimony; and the various parties, pointing out recip* The modern Parses and the ancient Mithriacs, who are the same
sect, observe all the Christian sacraments, even the laying on of hands
in confirmation. "The priest of Mithra," says Tertullian (De Prmscriptione, c. xl.), " promises absolution from sin on confession and bap.
tism; and, if I rightly remember, Mithra marks his soldiers in the fore.
-head (with the chrism, the Egyptian kouphi); he celebrates the sacrifice
of bread, which is the resurrection, and presents the crown to his follow.
ers, menacing them at the same time with the sword," etc.
In these mysteries they tried the courage of the initiated with a thou.
uand terrors, presenting fire to his face. a sword to his breast, etc.; they
also offered him a crown, which he refused, saying: " God is my crown:"
and this crown is to be seen in the celestial sphere by the side of Bootes.'he personages in these mysteries were distinguished by the names of
the animal constellations. The ceremony of mass is nothing more than
an imitation of these mysteries, and of those of Eleusis. The bene.
diction, " The Lord be with you," is a literal translation of the formula
of admission, " Chon-k, am, p-ak."  See Beausobre, Histoire du Mani.
*heisme, vol. ii.




108                     THE  RUINS.
rocal contradictions, improbabilities, and forgeries, accused each
oth'er of havin'g established this belief on popular rumors, vague
traditions, and absurd fables, invented without discernment, and
admitted without examination by unknown, ignorant, or partial
writers, and at false or uncertain epochs.
k great murmur now arose from under the standards of the
various In'dian sects; and the brahmins, protesting against the
pretensions of the Jews and Parses, said:" What are these new and almost unheard-of nations, who
arrogantly set themselves up as the sources of the human race,
-and the depositaries of its archives?  To hear their calculations
of five or six thousand years, it would seem that the world was
of yesterday, whereas our monuments prove a duration of many
thousands of'centuries. And for what reason are their books to
be preferred to ours? Are, then, the Vedas,* Chastras, and
Pourans, inferior to the Bibles, Zend-Avestas, and Sad-ders?
And is not the testimony of our fathers and our gods as valid as'that of the fathers and the gods of the occidentals? Ah! if it
were permitted to reveal our mysteries to profane men! if a sacred veil did not justly conceal them from every eye!"
The brahmins stopping short at these words, " How can we
admit your doctrine," said the legislator, " if you will not make
it known? And how did its first authors propagate it, when,
being alone possessed of it, their own people were to them profane?  Did Heaven reveal it to be kept a secret?"
The Vedas or Vedams are the sacred volumes of the Hindoos, as the
Bibles with us. They are three in number: the Rick Veda, the Yadjour
Veda, and the Sama Veda: they are so scarce in India, that the English
could with great difficulty find an original one, of which a copy is depos.
ited in the British museum: they who reckon four Vedas, include among
them the Attar Veda, concerning ceremonies, but which is lost. There
are besides commentaries, named upanishada, one of which was published
by Anquetil du Peron, and entitled Oupnekhat, a curious work. The date
of these books is more than twenty-five centuries prior to our era; their
contents prove that all the reveries of the Greek metaphysicians come
from India and Egypt. Since the year 1788, the learned men of England
are working in India a mine of literature totally unknown in Europe, and
which proves that the civilization of India ascends to a very remote an.
tiquity. After the Vedas come the Chastras, amounting to six. They
treat of theology and the sciences. Afterward eighteen Pouranas, treat.
iig of mythology and history. See the Bahgouet-guita, the Baga Vedam,
and the Ezour-Vedam, etc.




THE  RUINS.                     109
But the brahmins persisting in their silence, "Let them have
the honor of the secret," said a European: i" their doctrine is
Wow divulged; we possess their books, and I can give you the
substance of them."
Then beginning with an abstract of the four Vedas, the eighteen Pourans, and the five or six Chastras, be rlecounted how a
being, infinite, eternal, immaterial, and round, after having
passed an eternity in self-contemplation, and determining at last
to manifest himself, separated the male and female faculties
which were in him, and performed an act of generation, of
which the Lingam remains an emblem; how that first act gave
birth to three divine powers, Brahma, Bichen or Vichenou, and
Chib or Chiven, whose functions were-the first to create, the
second                        to destroy or change the form
of the universe: then, detailing the history of their operations
and adventures, he explained how Brahma, proud of having
created the world and the eight spheres of purifications, thought
himiself superior to Chib, his equal; how this pride brought on
a battle between them, in which the celestial globes, or orbits
were crushed, like a basket of eggs; how Brahma, vanquished
in this conflict, was reduced to serve as a pedestal to Chib, metamorphosed into a Lingam; how Vichenou, the god mediator,
has assumed at different times, to preserve the world, nine mortal forms of animals; how first, in shape of a fish, he saved firom
the universal deluge a family who repeopled the earth; how
afterward, in the form of a tortoise, he drew from the milky sea
the mountain Mandreguiri (the pole): then, becoming a boar,
he tore the belly of the giant Erenniachessen, who was drowning the earth in the abyss of Djole, and saved it on his tusks;
how, becoming incarnate in a black shepherd, and under the
name of Chris-en, he delivered the world of the venomous serpent Calengam, and then crushed his head, after having been
wounded by him in the heel.
Then passing on to the history of the secondary genii, he
related how the Eternal, to manifest his glory, created various
orders of angels, who were to sing his praises, and to direct the
universe; how a part of these angels revolted under the guidance of an ambitious chief, who strove to usurp the power of
God, and to govern all; how God plunged them into a world
of darkness, there to undergo the punishment of their crimes;
10




110                   THE RUINS.
how at last, touched with compassion, he consented to release
them, and receive them into favor. after they should undergo a
long series of probations; how, after creating for this purpose
fifteen orbits or regions of planets, and peopling them with bodies, he ordered these rebel angels to undergo in them eightyseven transmigrations; he then explained how souls, thus purified, returned to the first source, to the ocean of life and aniimation from which they had proceeded; and since all living
creatures contain portions of this universal soul, he taught how
criniinal it was to deprive them of it. He was finally proceeding to explain the rites and ceremonies, when speaking of offerings and libations of milk and butter to gods of copper and wood,
and then of purifications by the dung and urine of cows, there
arose a universal murmur, mixed with peals of laughter, which
interrupted the orator.
Each of the different groups began to reason on that religion:
"' They are idolaters," said the Mussulmans. i" and should be
exterminated." —" They are deranged in their intellect," said
the followers of Confucius; "we should try to cure them.""- What ridiculous gods," said others, i" are these puppets, be.
smeared with grease and smoke, that must be washed like dirt)
children,.and from whom you must brush away the flies, attracted by honey, and fouling them with their excrements!"
But a brahmin exclaimed with indignation: 1" These are profound mysteries-emblems of truth which you are not worthy
to hear."
And in what respect are you more worthy than we?" exclaimed a lama of Tibet., "Is it because you pretend to be
issued from the head of Brahma, and the rest of the human race
from the less noble parts of his body? But to support the
pride of your distinctions of origin and castes, prove to us in
the first place, that you are different from other men. Establish, in the next place, as historical facts, the allegories which
you relate; show us, indeed, that you are the authors of all
this doctrine, for we will demonstrate, if necessary, that you
have only stolen and disfigured it —that you are only the imitators of the ancient paganism of the occidentals; to which, by
an ill-assorted mixture, you have allied the pure and spiritual
doctrine of our God-a doctrine totally detached from  the




THE RUINS..11
senses, and entirely unknown on earth till Boudh taught it to
the nations."
A number of groups having inquired what was this doctrine,
and who was this God, whose name the greater part of them
had never heard, the latna resumed, and said:"In the beginning, a sole and self-existent God, having passed
an eternity in the contemplation of his own being, resolved to
manifest his perfections out of himself, and created the matter
of the world. The four elements being produced, but still in a
state of confusion, he breathed on the face of the waters, which
swelled like an immense bubble in form of an egg, which unfolding, became the vault or orb of heaven enclosing the world.
Having made the earth, and the bodies of animals, this God,
essence of motion, imparted to them a portion of his own being
to animate them. for this reason, the soul of everything that
breathes being a fraction of the universal soul, no one of them
can perish; they only change their form and mould in passing
successively into different bodies. Of all these forms, the one
most pleasing to God is that of man, as most resembling his
own perfections. When a man, by an absolute disengagement
from his senses, is wholly absorbed in self-contemplation, he
then discovers the divinity and becomes himself God. Of all
the incarnations of this kind that God has hitherto taken, the
greatest and most solemn was that in which he appeared twenty-eight centuries ago in Kachemire, under the name of Fot or
Boudh, to preach the doctrine of self-denial and self-annihilation." Then, pursuing the history of Fot, the lama said: i" He
was born from the right flank of a virgin of royal blood, who did
not cease to be a virgin for having become a mo'ther; that the
king of the country, alarmed at his birth, wished-to destroy
him, and for this purpose ordered a massacre of all the males
born at that period; that being saved by shepherds, Boudh lived
in the desert till the age of thirty, when he began his mission,
to enlighten men and cast out devils; that he performed a multitude of the most astonishing miracles; that he spent his life
in fasting and severe penitence, and at his death bequeathed to
his disciples a book which contained his doctrines." And the
lama began to read:"'He that leaveth his father and mother to follow me,' says
Fot,' becomes a perfect Samanean' (heavenly man).




l112                     THE  RUINS.
"'  -LHe that practises my precepts to the'fourth degree  ~f per
fection, acquires the faculty of flying in the air, of moving
heaven and earth, of prolonging and shortening life' (rising from
the dead).
"' The Samanean despises riches, and uses only what is
Strictly necessary; he mortifies his body; silences his passions;
d~siries -nothing; forms no attachments; meditates my doctrines
without iceasing; endures injuries with patience, and bears no
malice to his neighbor.
"'iHeaven and earth shall perish,' says Fot:'despise, there-'fore, your bodies composed of the four perishable elements, and
think only of your immortal soul.
"' Listen not to the flesh: fear and sorrow spring from the
passions: stifle the passions, and you destroy fear and sorrow.
"' Whoever dies without having embraced my religion,' says
Fot,' returns among men until he embraces it.'"
The lama* was proceeding, when the Christians, interrupting
See the History of Manicheism, by Beausobre, who proves that these
sectaries were pure Zoroastrians; which makes the existence of their
opinions to precede J. C. by 1200 years. It follows, therefore, that
Boudh Chaucasam was still more ancient, since the Boudhite doctrine is
found in the oldest Indian books, that preceded our era by 3100 years
(such as Bahgouet Guita). Observe, moreover, that Boudh is the ninth
avatar or incarnation of Vichenou, which places him at the origin of this
theology. Further, among the Indians, Chinese, Tibetans, etc., Boudh
is the name of the planet we call Mercury, and of the day of the week
consecrated to that planet (Wednesday): this carries him back to the
origin of the calendar, at the same time that it shows him to have been
primitively identical with Hermes. His existence, therefore, extended to
Egypt. Now observe, that the Egyptian priests make Hermes at his
death to say: " I have hitherto lived banished from my true country; I
now go back there. Do not weep for me: I return to the celestial count
try whither every one goes in his turn; there dwells God: this life is but
death." (See Chalcidius in Timneum.) Now, this doctrine is precisely
that of the ancient Boudhites or Samaneans, of the Pythagoricians and
of the Orphies. In the doctrine of Orpheus, the god world is represented
by an egg: in the Hebrew and Arabian idioms, the egg is called baidhanalogous to Boudh (God), and to Boud, in Persian, existence, what is
(the world). Boudh is also analogous to bed vad, signifying, among the
Indians, science. Hermes was its god: he was the author of the sacred
oooks, or Egyptian Vedas. What ramifications, and what a remote an.
tiquity, does not all this suppose. Now the Boudhite priest of Ava adds'
"It is an article of faith that from time to time Heaven sends upon earti




THE  RUINS.                        112
him, exclaimed that this was their own religion adulterated;
that Fot was no other than Jesus himself disfigured, and that
the lamas were the Nestorians and Manicheans disguised and
bastardized.
But the lama, supported by the chamans, bonzes, gonnis,
taldpoins, of Siam, of Ceylon, of Japan, and of China, proved
to the Christians, even from their own authors, that the doctrine
of the Samaneans was diffused through the East more than
thousand years before the Christian era; that their name was
cited before the time of Alexander; and that Boutta or Boudh
was known long before Jesus. Then, retorting the pretensions
of th6 Christians against themselves: "Prove to us, now," said
the lama, 1" that you are not'yourselves degenerate Samaneans,
and that the man whom you make the author of your sect is
not Fot himself disfigured. Prove to us by historical facts that
he even existed at the epoch you pretend; for it being destitute
of authentic testimony,* we absolutely deny it; and we mainsome Boudhas to reclaim men, to save them from vice, and show them
the ways of salvation." With such a dogma extending over India, Per.
sia, Egypt, and Judea, it is no wonder that men's minds should be pre.
pared long beforehand for what latter ages offer to our view.
* " All the'world knows,' says Faustus, who, though a Manichean,
was one of the most learned men of the third century —" All the world
knows that the gospels were neither written by Jesus Christ, nor his
apostles, but, a long time after, by unknown persons, who, rightly judg.
ing that they should not obtain belief respecting things which they had
not seen, placed at the head of their recitals the names of contemporary
apostles." Consult upon this question, " Histoire des Apologistes de la
Religion Chretienne," attributed to Freret, but which was written by
Burigny, member of the Academy of Inscriptions. See, also, Mosheim,
de Rebus Christianorum; Correspondence of Atterbury, archbishop, 5
vols. 8vo., 1798; Toland Nazarenus; and Beausobre, Histoire du Mani.
cheisme, vol. 1. From all that has been written for and against it, re.
suits that the precise origin of Christianity is unknown; that the pre.
tended testimonies of Josephus (Antiq. Jud., lib. xviii., c. 3) and of
Tacitus (Annals, b. xv., c. 44), have been interpolated about the time
of the council of Nice, and that nobody could ever demonstrate the radi.
cal fact, that is to say, the real existence of the personage who gave rise
to the system. Without that existence, however, it would be difficult
to conceive the appearance of the system at its known epoch, although
history offers many examples of gratuitous and absolute suppositions
To resolve this truly curious and important problem, some man of sa.
gacity, instruction, and, above all, impartiality, benefiting by the re.
searches already made, should form a comparative table of the doctrine
10*




114                     THE  RUINS.
rain tnat your very gospels are only tle  book of sok0 m     MiithAice
of Persia, aihd Essenians of Syria, Who we're a brfinch of i0formed Samaneans."
At these words, the Christians set up a general cry, and a
new dispute was going to begin, when h number of Chinese
cham'anrs, and tlaJoins of Siamn, came. forward, and said thil
they!would settle the whole controversy.  Arnd one of them
speaking rFor the Wvhole-,, It is time," said he, " to put an end
to these frivolous contests by drawing aside the veil from the
interior doctrine* that Fot himself revealed to his disciples on
his death-bed."
of the Boudhites, and specially of the sect of Samana Gautama, contemporary with Cyrus; he sfiould examine what was the facility of commu.
nicati6n of India with Persia and Syria, particularly after the reign of
Darius Hystaspes, who, according to Agathius and Ammianus, consulted
the wise men of India, and introduced several of their ideas among the
magi: further, what facility there was after Alexander's time, under the
Seleucidce, who kept up diplomatical relations with the Indian kings; he
would see that, throdgh these communications, the system of the Samaneats might have'gradually extended as far as Egypt; that it might
have been the determining cause of the corporation of the Essenians in
Judea, etc. Tie only question then would be, if, when all was thus pre.
pared, the genieral exaltation of men's minds might not have prompted
an individual to fill the allotted part, either because he declared. and be.
liev;ed himiiself to be the personage announced, or because the multitude,
enchanted with his conduct, doctrine, and preaching, attributed to him
that character. In either'case, it is extremely probable that popular
disturbances excited the suspicions and vigilance of the Roman- government, and that at length some remarkable incident, such as the entrance
into Jerusalem, forced the prefect to adopt a measure of rigor, an act of severity, that suddenly put an end to the drama (nearly as related), but which
only augmented the interest which the regretted personage inspired, and
by that means gave rise to narrations and associations the result of which
would perfectly agree with the state of things afterward seen in history.
Doubtless where her positive testimony is wanting, there no moral cerVtinty can'exist; but by the concatenation of causes and effects,'a de.
gree of probability producing the same effect may be attained, since,
even with the most positive testimonies, history can only pretend to a
greater or lesser degree of probability.' The Boudhites have two doctrines: the one public and ostensible,
the other interior and secret, precisely like the Egyptian priests. It may
be asked, why this distinction? Because, as the public doctrine reccm.
mends otferings, expiations, endowments, etc., the priests find their
profit in preaching it to the people; whereas the other, teach'ing the
vanity of wiorldly things, and being attended with no lucre, it is tiought




TILE  RUINS.                      115
"All these theologicail opinionsi," said he, " are buit chimeras.
All the stories of the nature of the gods, of their actions and
lives, are but allegories and mythological emblems, under which'are enveloped ingenious ideas of morals, and the knowledge of
tihe operations of nature in the action of the elements and the
miaoivemetit "of the planets.
", The truth is, that'all is reduced to nothing; that all is illusion, appearance, dream; that the m6iral metempsychosis is only
the figurative sense of the physical inetempsychosis, or the successive movement by which the elements of the same body
perish not, but, at its dissolution, pass into other mediums and
form other combinations.  The soul is but the vital principle
which results from the properties of matter, and from the action
of the elements in those bodies where they create a spontaneous
movement.  To suppose that this product of the play of the
organs, born with them, matured with them, and which sleeps
with them, can subsist when they cease, is the romance of a
wandering imagination-perhaps agreeable, but absolutely chimnerical.  God itself is nothing more than the moving principle,
the occult force inherent in all beings; the sum  of their laws'and properties; the animating principle; in a word, the soul of
the universe, which, on account of the infinite variety of its
connexions and operations, sometimes simnple, sometimes multip!e, sometimes active, sometimes passive, has always presented
to the human mind an insolvable enigma.  All that man can
comprehend with certainty is, that matter does not perish; that
it possesses essentially those properties by which the world is
held together like a living and organized being; that the knowl-edge of these laws, with respect to man, is what constitutes
wisdom; that virtue and merit consist in their observance, and
evil, sin, and vice, in the ignorance and violation of them; that
happiness and misery result from these by the same necessity
which makes heavy bodies descend, and light ones rise, by a fatality of Causes and effects, whose chain extends from the smallest atom to the greatest of the heavenly bodies.  All this was
revealed on his death-bed by our Boudah Somona Goutama."
At these words, a crowd of theologians of every sect cried out
that this doctrine was materialism; and those who profess it
proper to make it known only to adepts. Thus are men divided into the'two evicdently distinct classes of knaves and dupes!




116                   THE RUINS.
were impious atheists, enemies to God and man, who must be
exterminated. —" Very well!" replied the Chamans, "suppose
we are in an error, which is not impossible, since the first attribute of the human mind is to be subject to illusion: but what
right have you to take away from men like yourselves, the lifo
which Heaven has given them? If Heaven holds us guilty,
and in abhorrence, why does it impart to us the same blessings
as to you? And if it tolerates us, what right have you to be
less indulgent? Pious men! who speak of God with so much
certainty and confidence, please to tell us what it is; give us to
comprehend what these abstract metaphysical beings are, which
you call God and soul, substance without matter, existence
without body, life without organs or sensation. If you know
those beings by your senses or their reflections, render them in
like manner perceptible to us; or, if you speak of them on testimony and tradition, show us a uniform account, and give a
determinate basis to our creed." There now arose among the
theologians a great controversy respecting God and his nature;
his manner of acting and of manifesting himself; on the nature
of the soul and its union with the body; whether it exists before the organs, or only after they are formed; on the future
life and the other world: and every sect, every school, every individual, differing on all these points, and each assigning plausible reasons, and respectable though opposite authorities, for his
opinion, they fell into an inextricable labyrinth of contradictions.
Then the legislator, having commanded silence and recalled
the dispute to its true object, said: "Chiefs and instructors of
the people, you came together in search of truth. At first, every one of you, thinking he possessed it, demanded of the others
an implicit faith; but receiving the contrariety of your opinions, you found it necessary to submit them to a common rule
of evidence, and to bring them to one general term of comparison: and you agreed that each should exhibit the proofs of his
doctrine. You began by alleging facts; but each religion and
every sect, being equally furnished with miracles and martyrs,
each producing an equal cloud of witnesses, and offering to support them by a voluntary death, the balance on this first point,
by right of parity, remained equal.
"You then passed to the trial of reasoning; but the same




THE  RUINS.                      117
arguments applying equally to contrary positions-rthe same assertions, equally gratuitous, being advanced and repelled with
equal force, and all having an equal right to refuse assent, nothing was demonstrated. What is more, the confrontation of
your systems has brought up new and extraordinary difficulties;
for amid the apparent or adventitious diversities, you have discovered a fundamental resemblance, a common groundwork;
and each of you, pretending to be the inventor and first depositary, have taxed each other with adulterations and plagiarisms.
and thence arises a difficult question concerning the transmission of religious ideas from people to people.
"Finally, to complete the embarrassment, when you endeavored to explain your doctrines to each other, they appeared confused and foreign, even to their adherents; they were founded
on ideas inaccessible to your senses: of consequence you had
no means of judging of them, and you confessed yourselves in
this respect to be only the echoes of your fathers. Hence follows this other question: How came they to the knowledge of
your fathers, who themselves had no other means than you to
conceive them?-so that, on the one hand, the succession of
these ideas being unknown, and, on the other, their origin and
existence being a mystery, all the edifice of your religious
opinions becomes a complicated problem of metaphysics and
history.
- Since, however, these opinions, extraordinary as they may
be, must have had some origin-since even the most abstract
and fantastical ideas have some physical model, it may be useful
to recur to this origin, and discover this model; in a word, to
find out from what source the human understanding has drawn
these ideas, at present so obscure, of the divinity, the soul, and
all immaterial beings, which make the basis of so many systems; to unfold the filiation which they have followed, and the
alterations which they have undergone in their transmissions
and ramifications. If, then, there are any persons present who
have made a study of these objects, let them come forwnvard, and
endeavor, in the face of nations, to dissipate the obscurity in
which their opinions have so long strayed."




N11                   THE RUUNS,.
CHAPTER XXII.
OR1LIN AND TILIATION OF RELIGIOUS  EAS.
AT these words, a new group, formed in an instant by men
from various standards, but not distinguished by any, came forward in the circle; and one of them spoke in the name of the
whole:" Legislator! friend. of evidence and truth, it is not astonishing that the subject in question should. be enveloped in so many
clouds, since, besides its inherent difficulties, thought itself has
always been encumbered, with superadded obstacles peculiar to
this study, where all free inquiry and discussion have been interdicted by the intolerance of every system; but now that our,
views are permitted to expand, we will expose to open day, and
submit to the judgment of nations, that which unprejudiced
minds after long researches have found to be most reasonable;
and we do this, not with the pretensiQp of imposing a new creed.
but with the hope of provoking new lights, and obtaining better.
information.
"Doctors and instructors of nations! You know what thick
darkness covers the nature, the origin, the history, of the dogmasa
which you teach: imposed by force and authority, inculcated by
education, and maintained by example, they pass from age to agp.
and strengthen their empire from habit and inattention. But if
man, enlightened by reflection and experience, brings to mature
examination the prejudices of his childhood, he soon discovers
a multitude of incongruities and contradictions which awaken
his sagacity and excite his reasoning powers,
" At first, remarking the diversity and opposition of the creeds
which divide the nations, he rejects the infallibility which each
of them claims; and arming himself with their reciprocal pretensions, he conceives that his senses and his reason, derived
immediately from God, are a law not less holy, a guide not less
sure, than the mediate and contradictory codes of the prophets.
" If he then examines the texture of these codes themselves,
he observes that their laws, pretended to be divine, that is, imYmutable and eternal, have arisen from circumstances of times,




THE RUIIN.                       t[l
places, and persons; that they have issued, one from the other,
in a kind of genealogical order, borrowing from each other reciprocally a common and similar fund of ideas, which every:
lawgiver modifies according to his fancy.
"If he ascends $o the source of these ideas, he finds it involved in the night of time, in the infancy of nations, even in the
origin of the world, to which they claim  alliance; and there,
placed in the darkness of chaos, in the empire of fables and traditions, they present themselves, accompanied with a state of
things so full of prodigies, that it seems to forbid all access to:he judgment; but this state itself excites a first effort of reason,
which resolves the difficulty; for, if the prodigies found in the
theological systems have really existed —if, for instance, the
metamorphoses, the apparitions, the conversations with one or
many gods, recorded in the sacred books of the Indians, the
Hebrews, the Parses, are historical events, he must agree that,
nature in those times was totally different from what it is at
present; that the present race of men are quite another species
from  those who then existed, and, therefore, he ought not to
trouble his head about them.
" If, on the contrary, these miraculous events have really not
existed in the physical order of things, then he readily conceives
that they are creatures of the human intellect; and this faculty.
being still capable of the most fantastical combinations, explains
at once the phenomenon of these monsters in history: it only,
remains, then, to find how and wherefore they have been formed
in the imagination. Now, if we examine with care the subjectq
of these intellectual creations, analyze the ideas which they
combine and associate, and attentively weigh all the circuuistances which they allege, we shall find that this first obscure
and incredible state of things is explained by the laws of nature;
we find that these stories of a fabulous kind have a figurative
sense, different from the apparent one; that these events, pre7
tended to be marvellous, are simple and physical facts, which,
being misconceived or misrepresented, have been disfigured by.
accidental causes dependent. on the human mind, by the confusion of signs employed to paint the ideas, the want of precision
in words, permanence in language, and perfection in writing;
we find that these gods, for instance, who display such singular
characters in every system, are only the physical agentsof na



120                    THE  RUINS.
ture, the elements, the winds, the stars, and the meteors, which
have been personified by the necessary mechanism of language
and of the human understanding; that their lives, their manners, their actions, are only their mechanical operations and
connexions; and that all their pretended history is only the description of these phenomepa, formed by the first naturalists
who observed them, and misconceived by the vulgar who did
not understand them, or by succeeding generations who forgot
them. In a word, all the theological dogmas on the origin of
the world, the nature of God, the revelation of his laws, the
manifestation of his person, are known to be only the recital of
astronomical facts, only figurative and emblematical accounts
of the motion of the heavenly bodies; we are convinced that
the very idea of a God, that idea at present so obscure, is, in its
first origin, nothing but that of the physical powers of the universe, considered sometimes as a plurality by reason of their
agencies and phenomena, sometimes as one simple and only being by reason of the universality of the machine and the connexion of its parts; so that the being called God has been sometimes the wind, the fire, the water, all the elements; sometimes
the sun, the stars, the planets, and their influence; sometimes
the matter of the visible world, the totality of the universe;
sometimes abstract and metaphysical qualities, such as space,
duration, motion, and intelligence; and we everywhere see this
conclusion, that the idea of God'has not been a miraculous
revelation of invisible beings, but a natural offspring of the
human intellect, an operation of the mind, whose progress it
has followed, and whose revolutions it has undergone, in all
the knowledge it has acquired of the physical world and its
agents.
A" It is, then, in vain that nations attribute their religion to
heavenly inspirations, it is in vain that their dogmas pretend to
a primeval state of supernatural events: the original barbarity
of the human race,* attested by their own monuments, belies
these assertions at once; but there is one constant and indubitable fact which refutes, beyond contradiction, all these doubtful
* It is the unanimous testimony of history and even of legends, that
the first human beings were everywhere savages, and that it was to civ.
Uize them, and to teach them to make bread, that tile gods manitfested
themselves.




THE  RUINS.                       121
accounts of past ages. From this position, that man acquires
and receives no ideas but through the medium of his senses,* it
follows, with certainty, that every notion which pretends to any
other origin than that of sensation and experience, is the erroneous supposition of a posterior reasoning; now, it is sufficient
to cast an eye upon the sacred systems of the origin of the
world, and of the actions of the gods, to discover in every idea,
in every word, the anticipation of an order of things which could
not exist till a long time after.  Reason, strengthened by these
contradictions, rejecting everything that is not in the order of
nature, and admitting no historical facts but those founded on
probabilities, lays open its own system, and pronounces itself
with assurance:1" Before one nation had received from another nation dogmas
already invented; before one generation had inherited ideas acquired by a preceding generation, none of these complicated
systems could have existed in the world. The first men, being
children of nature, anterior to all events, ignorant of all science,
were born without any idea of the dogmas arising from scholastic disputes; of rites founded on the practice of arts not then
known; of precepts framed after the development of passions;
of laws which suppose a language, a state of society, not then
in being; of God, whose attributes all refer to physical objects,
and his actions to a despotic state of government; or of the soul,
or of any of those metaphysical beings, which we are told are
not the objects of sense, and for which, however, there can be
no other means of access to the understanding. To arrive at so
many results, the necessary circle of preceding facts must have
been observed; slow experience and repeated trials must have
taught the rude man the use of his organs-; the accumulated
observations of successive generations must have invented and
improved the means of living; and the mind, freed from  the
cares of the first wants of nature, must have raised itself to the
complicated art of comparing ideas, of digesting argument, and
seizing abstract similitudes.
* The rock on which the ancients split, and which has occasioned aU
their errors, has been the supposing the idea of God innate, and coeter
nal with the soul; and hence all the reveries developed in Plato and Jams
blicus. See the Timceus, the Phedon, and De Mysteriis JEgyptiorum,
sect. i., c. iii.
11




122                   THE RUINS
Origin of the idea of God; worship of the elements and of the
physical powers of nature.
"It was not till after having overcome these obstacles, and
gone through a long career in the night of history, that man,
reflecting on his condition, began to perceive that he was subjected to forces superior to his own, and independent of his
will. The sun enlightened and warmed him, fire burned him,
thunder terrified him, the wind beat upon him, and water
drowned him; all beings acted upon him powerfully and irresistibly. He sustained this action for a long time, like a machine,
without inquiring the cause; but the moment he began his inquiries, he fell into astonishment, and, passing from the surprise
of his first reflections to the revery of curiosity, he began a chain
of reasoning.
"' First, considering the action of the elements on him, he
conceived an idea of weakness and subjection on his part, and
of power and domination on theirs; and this idea of power
was the primitive and fundamental type of every idea of the
Divinity.
" Secondly, the action of these natural existences excited in
him sensations of pleasure or pain, of good or evil; and by a
natural effect of his organization, he conceived for them love or
aversion; he desired or dreaded their presence; and fear or hope
gave rise to the first idea of religion.
"' Then, judging everything by comparison, and remarking in
these beings a spontaneous movement like his own, he supposed
this movement directed by a will, an intelligence, of the nature
of his own; and hence, by induction, he formed a new reasoning. Having experienced that certain practices toward his fellow-creatures had the effect to modify their affections and direct
their conduct, he resorted to the same practices toward these
powerful beings of the universe: he reasoned thus:' When my
fellow-creature, stronger than I, is disposed to do me injury, I
demean myself before him, and by prayers succeed in appeasing
him. I will pray to these powerful beings who strike me; I
will implore the intelligences of the winds, the stars, and the
waters, and they will hear me. I will conjure them to avert the
evil and give me the good that is at their disposal; I will move




THE RUINS.                      123
them by my tears, I will soften them by offerings, and will enjoy happiness.'
" Thus simple man, in the infancy of his reason, spoke to the
sun and moon; he animated with his own understanding and
pafsions the great agents of nature;, he thought, by vain sounds
and vain practices, to change their inflexible laws: fatal error!
IHe prayed the stone to ascend, the water to rise above its level,
the mountains to remove, and, substituting a fantastical world for
the real one, hie peopled it with imaginary beings, to the terror
of his mind and the torment of his race.
" In this manner the ideas of God and religion have sprung,
like all others, from physical objects, and were produced in the
mind of man by his sensations, his wants, the circumstances of
his life, and the progressive state of his knowledge.
" Now, as the ideas of the Divinity had their first models in
physical agents, it followed that the Divinity was at first varied
and manifold, like the form under which he appeared to act:
every being was a power, a genius, and the first men conceived
the universe filled with innumerable gods.
"A' gain, the ideas of the Divinity have been created by the
affections of the human heart; they became necessarily divided
into two classes, according to the sensations of pleasure or pain,
love or hatred: the powers of nature, the gods, the genii, were
divided into beneficent and malignant, good and evil; and
hence the universality of these two characters in all the systems
of religion.
"These ideas, analogous to the condition of their inventors,
were for a long time confused and ill-digested. Savage men,
wandering in the woods, beset with wants, and destitute of resources, had not the leisure to combine principles and draw conclusions; affected with more evils than they found pleasures,
their most habitual sentiment was that of fear, their theology
terror; their worship was confined to a few salutations and offerings to beings whom they conceived as ferocious, and as
greedy as themselves. In thuir state of equality and independence, no man offered himself as a mediator between men and
gods as insubordinate and poor as himself. No man having superfluities to give, there existed no parasite by the name of
priest, no tribute by the name of victim, no empire by the name
of altar; their dogmas and their morals were the same thing, it




124                     1 HI  RUINS.,vas only self-preservation; and religion, that arbitrary idea,
withou.t influence on the mutual relations of men, was a vain
Qornage rendered to the visible powers of nature.
"Such was the necessary and original idea of' the Divinity."
And the orator addressing himself to the savage nations: " We
appeal to you, men who have received no foreign and factitious.deas, say, have you ever gone beyond what I have described?
And you, doctors, we call you to witness, is not this the unanitmous testimony of all ancient monuments?*
*" c It clearly results," says Plutarch, " from the verses of Orpheus,
nd the sacred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians, that the ancient.heology, not only of the Greeks, but of all nations, was nothing more
than a system of physics, a picture of the operations of nature, wrapped
ip in mysterious allegories and enigmatical symbols, so that the ignorant
multitude attended rather to their apparent than to their hidden meaning,
and even in what they understood of the latter, supposed something more
Jeep than what they perceived."-Fragment of a work of Plutarch, now
lost, quoted by Eusebius Prcepar. Evanlg., lib. iii., c. i., p. 85.
" The majority of philosophers," says Porphyry, "and among others
Choeremon (who lived in Egypt in the first age of Christianity), imagine.here never existed any other world than the one we see, and acknowl.
edged no other gods, of all those recognised by the Egyptians, than such
as are commonly called planets. signs of the zodiac, and constellations;
whose aspects (risings and settings) are supposed to influence the for.
tunes of men! to which they add their divisions of the signs into decansi
or rulers of time, whom they style lords of the ascendant, whose names,
virtues in healjng distempers, rising, setting, and presages of future
events, are the subjects of almanacs (and the Egyptian priests had alma.
nacs the exact counterpart of Matthew Laensberg's); for when the
priests affirmed that the sun was the architect of the universe, Chueremon
presently concludes that all their narratives respecting Isis and Osiris,
together with their other sacred fables, referred in part to the planets,
the phases of the moon, and the revolution of the sun, and in part to the
stars of the daily and nightly hemispheres, and the river Nile; in a word,
to physical and natural existences, and never to such as might be imma.
terial and incorporeal. All these philosophers believe that the acts of
our will and the motion of our bodies depend upon those of the.stars to
which they are subjected, and they refer everything to the laws of
(physical) necessity, which they calf destiny or fate, supposing a chain
of causes and effects which binds, by I know not what connexion, all beings together, from the atom to the supreme power and primary influence
of the gods; so that, whether in their temples, or in their images aind
idols, the only subject of worship is the power of destiny." (Porph. Ep
ad Ianebonem.)




THE  RUINS.                        125
II. Second system. Worship of the Stars, or Sabeism.
"But those same monuments present us, likewise, a more
methodical and complicated system-that of the worship of all
the stars, adored sometimes in their proper forms, sometimes
under figurative emblems and symbols; and this worship was
the effect of the knowledge men had acquired in physics, and
was derived immediately from the first causes of the social state,
that is, from the necessities and arts of the first degree, which
are among the elements of society.
i" Indeed, as soon as men began to unite in society, it became
necessary for them to multiply the means of subsistence, and
consequently to attend to agriculture: agriculture, to be carried
on with success, requires the observation and knowledge of the
heavens.* It was necessary to know the periodical return of
the same operations of nature, and the same phefiomena in the
skies; indeed, to go so far as to ascertain the duration and succession of the seasons and the months of the year. It was indispensable to know, in the first place, the course of the sun,
who, in his zodiacal revolutions, shows himself the first and supreme agent of the whole creation; then of the moon, who, by
her phases and periods, regulates and distributes time; then of
the stars, and even planets, which, by their appearance and disappearance on the horizon and nocturnal hemisphere, marked
the minutest divisions; finally, it was necessary to'form a whole
system of astronomy, or a calendar; and from these works there
naturally followed a new manner of considering these predominant and governing powers. Having observed that the productions of the earth had a regular and constant relation with the
heavenly bodies; that the rise, growth, and decline of each plant
* It continues to be repeated every day, on the indirect authority of the
book of Genesis, that astronomy was the invention of the children of
Noah. It has been gravely said that, while wandering as shepherds in
the plains of Shinar, they employed their leisure in composing a planetary system; as if shepherds were under the necessity of knowing more
than the polar star, and as if necessity was not the sole motive of every
invention! If the ancient shepherds were so studious and sagacious, how
does it happen that the modern ones are so ignorant and inattentive
Now it is a fact, that the Arabs of the desert do not know six constella,
tions, and do not understand a word of astronomy.
11*




126                    THE  RUINS.
kept pace with the appearance, elevation, and declination of the
same star, or giotp of stars;. in short, that the languor or activity of vegetation seemed to depend on celestial influences,
men drew thence an idea of action, of power in those beings,
superior to earthly bodies; and the stars, dispensing plenty
or scarcity, became powers, genii, gods, authors of good and
evil.
"As the state of society had already introduced a regular
hierarchy of ranks, employments, and conditions, men, continuing to reason by comparison, carried their new notions into
their theology,- and formed a complicated system of gradual
divinities, in which the sun, as first god, was a military chief,
a political king; the moon was his wife, and queen; the planets were servants, bearers of commands, messengers; and the
multitude of stars were a nation, an army of heroes, genii,
whose office was to govern the world under the orders of their
chiefs; and all the individuals had names, functions, attributes,
drawn from their relations and influences; and even sexes, from
the gender of their appellations.*
"' And as the social state had introduced certain usages and
ceremonies, religion also adopted similar ones; these ceremonies, at first simple and private, became public and solemn; the
offerings became rich and more numerous, and the rites more
methodical; they assigned certain places for the assemblies, and
began to have chapels and temples; they instituted officers to
administer them, and these became priests and pontiffs; they
established liturgies, and sanctified certain days, and religion
became a civil act, a political tie. But in this arrangement religion did not change its first principles, and the idea of God
was always that of physical beings, operating good or evil, that
is, impressing sensations of pleasure or pain; the dogma was
the knowledge of their laws or manner of acting; virtue and sin
the observance or infraction of these laws; and morality, in its
native simplicity, was the judicious practice of whatever con* According as the gender of the object was, in the language of the na
tion, masculine or feminine, the divinity who bore its name was male or
female. Thus the Cappadocians called the moon god, and the sun g )ddess; a circumstance which gives to the same beings a perpetual vari ty
in ancient mythology.




THE  RUINS.                         127
tributes to the preservation of existence,* the well-being of one's
self and his fellow-creatures.
"' Should it be asked at what epoch this system took its birth,
we shall answer, on the testimony of the monuments of astronomy itself, that its principles appear incontestably to have been
established more than fifteen thousand years ago:t and if it be
asked to what people it is to be attributed, we shall answer that
the same monuments, supported by unanimous traditions, attribute it to the first tribes of Egypt; and when reason finds in
that country all the circumstances which could lead to such a
system; when it finds there a zone of sky, bordering on the
To this Plutarch adds, that these (Egyptian) priests always regarded
the preservation of health as a point of first importance, and as indispensably necessary to the practice of piety and the service of the gods, etc.
(See Isis and Osiris, toward the end.)
t The historical orator follows here the opinion of the learned Dupuis,
who first, in his memoir concerning the origin of the constellations, and
afterward in his great work concerning the origin of all worship, has col.
lected a great many arguments to prove that formerly Libra was the sign
of the vernal, and Aries of the autumnal equinox; that is, that the pre.
cession of the equinoxes has produced a change of more than seven signs.
The action of this phenomenon can not be denied: the most recent cal.
culations value it at 50 seconds, 12 or 15 thirds a year: therefore,
every degice of the zodiacal signs is removed or put back in 71 years, 8
or 9 months;; therefore an entire sign in 2,152 or 2,153 years. But if, as
is the fact, the equinoctial point of spring was exactly in the first degree
of Aries, in the year 388 before J. C.; that is, if at that period the sun
had gone through and put back a whole sign, to enter into Pisces, which
he has left in our own time, it follows that if he had left Taurus 2,153
years before, that is, about the year 2,540 before J. C., and had entered
it about the year 4,692 before J. C. Thus ascending from sign to sign,
the first degree of Aries was the autumnal equinoctial point about 12,912
years before the year 388, that is to say, 13,300 years before the Christian
era: add our eighteen centuries, you will find 15,100 years, and, more
over, the quantity of time and of ages necessary to bring astronomical
knowledge to such a degree of perfection. Now it is to be observed that
the worship of the Bull is the principal article in the theological creed
of the Egyptians, Persians, Japanese, etc., which clearly indicates at that
epoch some common system of ideas among these nations. The five or
six thousand years of Genesis can be objected only by those who believe
in it from education. (See on this subject the analysis of Genesis, in the
first volume of New Researches on Ancient History: see also Origin of
Constellations, by Dupuis, 1781; the Origin of Worship, in 3 vols., 1794,
and the Chronological Zodiac, in 4to, 1806.)




128        ~          THE  RUINS.
tropic, equally free from the rains of the equator and the fogs
of the north; when it finds there a central point of the sphere
of the ancients, a salubrious climate, a great, but manageable
river, a soil fertile without labor or art, inundated without morbid exhalations, and placed between two seas which communicate with the richest countries, it conceives that the inhabitant
of the Nile, addicted to agriculture from the nature of his soil,
to geometry from the annual necessity of measuring his lands,
to commerce from the facility of communications, to astronomy
from the state of his sky, always open to observation, must have
been the first to pass from the savage to the social state, and consequently to attain the physical and moral sciences necessary to
civilized life.
i" It was, then, on the borders of the upper Nile, among a
black race of men, that was organized the complicated system
of the worship of the stars considered in relation to the productions of the earth and the labors of agriculture; and this first
worship, characterized by their adoration under their own forms
and natural attributes, was a simple proceeding of the human
mind: but in a short time, the multiplicity of the objects, of
their relations, and their reciprocal influence, having complicated the ideas and the signs that represented them, there followed
a confusion as singular in its cause as pernicious in its effects.
III. Third System; — Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry.
"As soon as this agricultural people began to observe the
stars with attention, they found it necessary to individualize or
group them, and to assign to each a proper name, in order to
understand each other in their designation. But to this there
was a great obstacle; for, on the one hand, the heavenly bodies,
similar in form, offered no distinguishing characteristics by
which to denominate them, and, on the other, language, in its
infancy and poverty, had no expressions for so many new and
metaphysical ideas. Necessity, the usual stimulus of genius,
surmounted everything. Having remarked that, in the annual
revolution, the renewal and periodical appearance of terrestrial
productions were constantly associated with the rising and setting of certain stars, and to their position as reJative to the sun,
the fundamental term of all comparison, the mind, by a natural




THE RUINS.                      12.
operation, connected in thought these terrestrial and celestial
objects, which were connected in fact; and applying to them
a common sign, it gave to the stars and their groups the names
of the terrestrial objects to which they answered.*
"' Thus the Ethiopian of Thebes named stars of inundation,
or aquarius, those under which the Nile began to overflow;
stars of the ox or bull, those under which he began to plough;
stars of the lion, those under which that animal, driven from the
desert by thirst, appeared on the banks of the Nile; stars of the
sheaf or of the harvest virgin, those of the reaping season; stars
of the lamb, stars of the kids, those under which these precious
animals were brought forth: and thus was resolved the first
part of the difficulty.," Moreover, man having remarked, in the beings which surrounded him, certain qualities distinctive and peculiar to each
species, and having thence derived a name by which to designate them, he found in the same source an ingenious mode of
generalizing his ideas; and transferring the name already invented to everything which bore any resemblance or analogy,
he enriched his language with a perpetual round of metaphors.
"' Thus the same Ethiopian, having observed that the return
of the inundation always corresponded with the rising of a beautiful star which appeared toward the source of the Nile, and
seemed to warn the husbandman against the coming waters, he
compared this action to that of the animal who, by his barking,
gives notice of danger, and he called this star the dog, the barker
(Sirius). In the same manner he named the stars of the crab
those where the sun, having arrived at the tropic, retreated by
a slow retrograde motion like the crab or cancer. He named
stars of the wild goat, or capricorn, those where the sun, having
reached the highest point in his annuary tract, rests at the summit of the horary gnomon, and imitates the goat, who delights
to climb the summit of the rocks. He named stars of the balance, or libra, those where the days and nights, being equal,
seemed in equilibrium like that instrument; and stars of the
scorpion, those, where certain periodical winds bring vapors,
burning like the venom of the scorpion. In the same manner
* "The ancients," says Maimonides, "directing all their attention ta
agriculture, gave to the stars names derived from their occupation du
ring the year." (More Neb-, pars 5.)




130                  THE RUINS.
-he called by the name of rings and serpents the figured traces
of the orbits of the stars and planets: and such was the general
mode of naming* all the stars, and even the planets, taken by
groups or as individuals, according to their relations with husbandry and terrestrial objects, and according to the analogies
which each nation found between them and the objects of its
particular soil and climate.
"From this, it appeared that abject and terrestrial beings became associated with the superior and powerful inhabitants of
heaven; and this association became stronger every day by the
mechanism of language and the constitution of the human mind.
Men would say, by a natural metaphor,'The bull spreads over
the earth the germs of fecundity (in spring)-he restores vegetation and plenty; the lamb (or ram) delivers the skies from the
malevolent genii of winter; he saves the world from the serpent (emblem of the humid season), and restores the empire of
goodness (summer, joyful season). The scorpion pours out his
poison on the earth, and scatters diseases and death,' etc.: the
same of all similar effects.
1" This language, understood by every one, was attended at
first with no inconvenience; but in the course of time, wlien
the calendar had been regulated, the people, who had no longer
any need of observing the heavens, lost sight of the original
meaning of these expressions, and the allegories remaining in
common use became a fatal stumbling-block to the understanding and to reason. Habituated to associate to the symbols the
ideas of their archetypes, the mind at last confounded them:
then the same animals, whom fancy had transported to the skies,
turned again to the earth; but being thus returned, clothed in
the livery of the stars, they claimed the stellary attributes, and
imposed on their own authors. Then it was that the people,
believing that they saw their gods among them, could pray to
them with more convenience: they demanded from the ram of
their flock the influences which might be expected from the
heavenly ram; they prayed the scorpion not to pour out his
venom upon nature; they revered the crab of the sea, the scarab of the mire, the fish of the river; and by a series of corrupt
* The ancients had verbs from the substantives crab, goat, tortoise, as
the French have at present the verbs serpenter, coqueter. The mechan,sm of all languages is nearly the same.




THE  RUINS.                        131
aut inseparable analogies, they lost themselves in a labyrinth of
well-connected absurdities.
",Such was the origin of that ancient whimsical worship of
the animals; such is the train of ideas by which the character
of the divinity became common to the vilest of brutes, and by
which was formed that theological system, extremely comprehensive, complicated, and learned, which, rising on the borders
of the Nile, propagated from country to country by commerce,
war, and conquest, overspread the whole of the ancient world,
and which, modified by time, circumstances, and prejudices, is
still seen entire among a hundred nations, and remains as the
essential and secret basis of the theology of those even who deapise and reject it."
Some murmurs at these words being heard from various
groups-" Yes," continued the orator, "hence arose, for instance, among you, nations of Africa, the adoration of your
fetiches, plants, animals, pebbles, pieces of wood, before which
your ancestors would not have had the folly to bow, if they had
not seen in them talismans endowed with the virtue of the stars.*
Here, ye nations of Tartary! is the origin of your marmosets,
and of all that train of animals with which your chamans orna* The ancient astrologers, says the most learned of the Jews (Maimonides), having consecrated to each planet a color, an animal, a tree,
a metal, a fruit, a plant, formed from them all a figure or representation
of the star; taking care to select for the purpose a proper moment, a
fortunate day, such as the conjunction, or some other favorable aspect.
They conceived that by their (magic) ceremonies they could introduce
into those figures or idols the influences of the superior beings after
which they were modelled. These were the idols that the Kaldean Sa.
beans adored; and in the performance of their worship they were obliged
to be dressed in the proper color.... Thus the astrologers, by their
practices, introduced idolatry, desirous of being regarded as the dispensers of the favors of Heaven; and as agriculture was the sole em.
ployment of the ancients, they succeeded in persuading them that the
rain and other blessings of the seasons were at their disposal. Thus,
the whole art of agriculture was exercised by rules of astrology, and the
priests made talismans or charms which were to drive away locusts,
fies, etc. (See Maimonides, More Nebuchim, pars III., c. 9.)
" The priests of Egypt, Persia, India, etc., pretended to bind the gods
to their idols, and to make them descend from heaven at their pleasure.
They threatened the sun and moon to reveal the secret mysteries, to
shake the heavens," etc. (Euseb Prcepar. Evang., p. 198, and Jamnbli
tus, de Mysteriis AEgypt.)




132                    THE  RUINS.
ment their magical robes. This is the origin of those figures
of birds and of snakes which savage nations imprint upon their
skins with sacred and mysterious ceremonies. Ye inhabitants
of India! in vain you cover yourselves with the veil of mystery: the hawk of your god Vichenou is but one of the thousand emblems of the sun in Egypt; and your incarnations of
god in the fish, the boar, the lion, the tortoise, and all his monstrous adventures, are only the metamorphoses of the sun, who
passing through the signs of the twelve animals, was supposed
to assume their figures, and perform  their astronomical functions.* People of Japan! your bull, which breaks the'mundane egg, is only the bull of the zodiac, which in former times
opened the seasons, the age of creation, the vernal equinox. It
is the same bull Apis which Egypt adored, and which your
ancestors, O Jewish rabbins! worshipped in the golden calf.
This is still your bull, followers of Zoroaster! which, sacrificed in the symbolic mysteries of Mithra, poured out his blood
which fertilized the- earth. And, ye Christians! your bull of
the apocalypse, with his wings, symbol of the air, has no other
origin;- and your lamb of God, sacrificed, like the bull of Mithra, for the salvation of the world, is only the same sun, in'the
sign of the celestial ram, which, in a later age, opening the
equinox in his turn, was supposed to deliver the world from
evil-that is to say, from the constellation of the serpent, from
that great snake, the parent of winter, the emblem of the
Ahrimanes or Satan of the Persians, your instructors. Yes, in
vain does your imprudent zeal consign idolaters to the torments
of Tartarus which they invented: the whole basis of your system is only the worship of the sun, with whose attributes you
have decorated your principal personage. It is the sun which,
under the name of Orus, was born, like your god, at the winter
solstice, in the arms of the celestial virgin, and who passed a
childhood of obscurity, indigence, and want, answering to the
season of cold and frost. It is he that, under the name of Osiris, persecuted by Typhon and by the tyrants of the air, was
put to death, shut up in a dark tomb, emblem of the hemisphere
of winter, and afterward, ascending from the inferior zone tow* These are the very words of Jamblicus, de Symbolis ]Egyptiorum
c. 2., sect. 7. The sun was the grand Proteus, the universal metamor
phist.




THE  RUINS.                       133
ard the zenitm of heaven, arose again from the dead triumphant
over the giants and the angels of destruction.
" Ye priests! who murmur at this relation, you wear his
emblems all over your bodies: your tonsure is the disk of the
sun;* your stole is his zodiac;j your rosaries are symbols of the
stars and planets.  Ye pontiffs and prelates! your mitre, your
crosier, your mantle, are those of Osiris; and that cross, whose
mystery you extol without comprehending it, is the cross of
Serapis, traced by the hands of Egyptian priests on the plan of
the figurative world, which, passing through the equinoxes and
tropics, became the emblem of the future life, and of the resurrection, because it touched the gates of ivory and of horn,
through which the soul passed to heaven."
At these words, the doctors of all the groups began to look at
each other with astonishment; but no one breaking silence, the
orator proceeded:"Three principal causes concur to produce this confusion of
ideas. First, the figurative expressions under which-an infant
language was obliged to describe the relations of objects; which
expressions, passing afterward from a limited to a general sense,
and from a physical to a moral one, caused, by their ambiguities
and synonymes, a great number of mistakes.
"Thus, it being first said that the sun had surmounted or
finished twelve animals, it was thought afterward that he had
killed, fought, conquered them; and this gave rise to the historical life of Hercules.t
"It being said that he regulated the periods of rural labor,
"  The Arabs," says Herodotus, b. III., "shave their heads in a circle and about their temples, in imitation, as they pretend, of Bacchus"
(who is the sun). Jeremiah speaks also of this custom, c. 25, v. 23.
The tuft of hair which the Mussulmans preserve, is taken also from the
sun, who was painted by the Egyptians, at the winter solstice as having
but a single hair on his head.
t The robes of the goddess of Syria and of Diana of Ephesus, whence
are borrowed the dress of the priests, have the twelve animals of the
zodiac painted on them. The rosaries are found upon all the Indian
idols, erected more than four thousand five hundred years ago, and their
use in the East has been universal from time immemorial. The crosier
is precisely the staff of Bootes of Osiris. All the lamas wear the mitre
or cap in the shape of a cone, which was an emblem of the sun.
t See Dupuis's work, " Origin of Constellations and Origin of all Worship."
12




134                     THE  RUINS.
the seed-time, and the harvest, that he distributed the seasons
and occupations, that he ran through the.climates and ruled the
earth, etc., he was taken for a legislative king, a conquering
warrior; and they framed from  this the history of Osiris, of
Bacchus, and others of that description.
"Having said that a planet entered into a sign, they made of
this conjunction a marriage, an adultery, an incest.  Hiving
said that the planet was hid or buried, when it came back to
light and ascended to its exaltation, they said it had died, risen
again, ascended into heaven, etc.
" A second cause of confusion was the material figures themselves, by which men first painted thoughts, and which, under
the name of hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, were the first
invention of the mind. Thus, to give warning of the inundation, and of the necessity to guard against it, they painted a
boat, the ship Argo; to express the wind, they painted the wing
of a bird; to designate the season or the month, they painted
the bird of passage, the insect, or the animal which made its
appearance at that epoch; to describe the winter, they painted
a hog or serpent, which delight in humid places: and the combination of these figures carried the known sense of words and
phrases.* But as this sense could not be fixed with precision,
* The reader will doubtless see with pleasure some examples of ancient hieroglyphics.
"The Egyptians," says Hor-Apollo, " represent eternity by the figures
of the sun and moon. They designate the world by a blue serpent with
yellow scales (stars: it is the Chinese dragon). If they had to express
the year, they painted Isis, who is also in their language called Sothis,
or dogstar-the first of the constellations, by the rising of which the year
commences. Its inscription at Sais was:'It is I that rise in the con.
stellation of the dog.'
" They also represent the year by a palm-tree, and the month by oue
of its branches; because it is the nature of this tree to produce a branch
every month.
" They further represent it by a quarter of an acre. (The acre, divided into four, denotes the bissextile period of four years. The abbreviation of this figure of a field in four divisions is manifestly the letter ha
or 1heth, the seventh in the Samaritan alphabet. In general, the letters
of the alphabet are merely astronornical hieroglyphics; and it is for this
reason that the mode of writing is from right to left, like the march of
the stars.) They denote a prophet by the image of a dog, because the
dogstar (Anoubis) by its rising gives notice of the inundation.
" They represent inundation by a lion, because it takes place under




THE  RUINS.                         135
as the number of these figures and their combinations became
excessive, and overburdened the memory, the immediate consequence was confusion and false interpretations. Genius af
that sign; and hence (says Plutarch), the custom of placing at the
gates of temples figures of lions spouting water from their mouths.
" They express God and destiny by a star. They also represent God
(says Porphyry) by a black stone, because his nature is dark and ob.
scure. All white things express the celestial and luminous gods; all cir.
cular ones the world, the moon, the sun, the orbits; all bows and crescents, the moon. Fire and the gods of Olympus, they represent by
pyramids and obelisks (the name of the sun. Baal, is found in this latter
word); the sun by a cone (the mitre of Osiris); the earth by a cylinder
(which rolls); the generative power (of the air) by the phallus; and
that of the earth by a triangle-emblem of the female organ. (Euseb.,
Prwepar. Evang., p. 98.)
"' Clay (says Jamblicus, de Symbolis, sect. 7, c. 2) denotes matter, the
generative and nutritive power-everything which receives the warmth
and fermentation of life.
" A man sitting upon the lotos or nenuphar, represents the moving
spirit (the sun) which, in like manner as that plant lives in the water
without any communication with clay, exists equally distinct from mat.
ter, swimming in space, resting on itself; round in all its parts like the
fruit, leaves, and flowers, of the lotos. Brahma has lotos-eyes (says
the Chaster Neardisen), to denote his intelligence; his eye swimming
over everything, like the flower of the lotos on the waters. A man at
the helm of a ship (adds Jamblicus) is descriptive of the sun, which
govern all. And Porphyry tells us that the sun is also represented by a
man in a ship resting on a crocodile (the amphibious emblem of air and
water).
4 At Elephantina they worshipped the figure of a man sitting, of a blue
color, with a ram's head, and a goat's horns encompassing the disk; all
which represented the sun and moon's conjunction in the ram, the blue
color denoting the power of the moon, at the period of junction, to raise
water into clouds (apud Euseb., Prepar. Evang., p. 116).
" The hawk is an emblem of the sun and light, on account of his rapid
flight, and his soaring into the highest regions of the air where light
abounds.
"A fish is the emblem of aversion, and the hippopotamus of violence,
because it is said to kill its father and ravish its mother. Hence (says
Plutarch) the hieroglyphical inscription of the temple of Sais, where we
see painted on the vestibule, 1st, a child; 2d, an old man; 3d, a hawk;
4th, a fish; and 5th, a hippopotamus: which signify, 1st, entrance into
life; 2d, departure; 3d, god; 4th, hates; 5th, injustice. (See Isis and
Osiris.)
" The Egyptians (adds he) represent the world by a scarab, because
this insect pushes in a direction contrary to that in which it proceeds, a




136                     THE  RUINS.
forward having invented the more simple art of applying signs
to sounds, of which the number is limited, and painting words,
instead of thoughts, alphabetical writing threw into disuse
hieroglyphical painting; and its signification, falling daily into
oblivion, gave rise to a multitude of illusions, ambiguities, and
errors.
"Finally, a third cause of confusion was the civil organization of ancient states.  When the people began to apply themselves to agriculture, the formation of a rural calendar requiring
a continued series of astronomical observations, it became necessary to appoint certain individuals charged with the functions
of watching the appearance and disappearance of certain stars,
to foretell the return of the inundation, of certain winds, of the
rainy season, the proper time to sow every kind of grain: these
men, on account of their service, were exempt from common
labor, and the society provided for their maintenance. With
this provision, and wholly employed in their observation, they
soon became acquainted with the great phenomena of nature,
and even learned to penetrate the secret of many of her operations. They discovered the movement of the stars and planets;
the coincidence of their phases and returns with the productions
ball containing its eggs, just as the heaven of the fixed stars causes the
revolution of the sun (the yolk of an egg) in an opposite direction to its
own.
" They represent the world, also, by the number five, being that of
the elements, which (says Diodorus) are earth, water, air, fire, and ether,
or spiritus (they are the same among the Indians); and according to
the mystics, in Macrobius, they are the supreme God, or primum mobile,
the intelligence or meus born of him, the soul of the world which pro.
ceeds from him, the celestial spheres and all things terrestrial. Hence
(adds Plutarch) the analogy between the Greek pente, five, and pan, all.
" The ass (says he, again) is the emblem of Typhon, because he is
of a ruddy color like that animal. Now Typhon signifies whatever is of
a. mirey or clayey nature; and in Hebrew I find the three words clay,
ruddy, and ass, to be formed from the same root, hamr. Jamblicus has
further told us that clay denoted matter, and he elsewhere adds, that all
evil and corruption proceeded from matter; which, compared with the
phrase of Macrobius-all is perishable, liable to change, in the celestia.
sphere, gives us the theory, first physical, then moral, of the system of
good and evil of the ancients."  (See, also, the Memoir concerning the
zodiac of Dendera, which the learned Dupuis has inserted in the journal
entitled Revue Philosophique, year 1801.)




THE  RUINS.                       137
of the earth and the action of vegetation; the medicinal and
nutritive properties of plants and fruits; the action of the elements, and their reciprocal affinities. Now, as there was no
other method of communicating the knowledge of these discoveries but the laborious one of oral instruction, they transmitted
it only to their relations and friends, it followed that all science
and instruction were confined to a few families, who, arrogating
it to themselves as an exclusive privilege, assumed a professional
distinction, a corporation spirit, fatal to the public welfare.
This continued succession of the same researches and the same
labors hastened, it is true, the progress of knowledge; but by
the mystery which accompanied it, the people were daily plunged in deeper shades, and became more superstitious and more
enslaved. Seeing their fellow-mortals produce certain phenomena, announce, as at will, eclipses and comets, heal diseases, and
handle serpents, they thought them in alliance with celestial
powers;. and to obtain the blessings and avert the evils which
they expected from above, they took them for mediators and interpreters: and thus became established in the bosom of every
state sacrilegious corporations of hypocritical and deceitful men,
who engrossed all the authority; and the priests, being at once
astronomers, theologians, naturalists, physicians, magicians, interpreters of the gods, oracles of men, and rivals of kings, or their
accomplices, established, under the name of religion, an empire
of mystery and a monopoly of instruction, which to this day have
ruined every nation   "
Here the priests of all the groups interrupted the orator; and
with loud cries accused him of impiety, irreligion, blasphemy,
and endeavored to cut short his discourse; but the legislator
observing that this was only an exposition of historical facts,
which, if false or forged, would be easily refuted; that hitherto
the declaration of every opinion had been free, and without
this it would be impossible to discover the truth, the orator proceeded:"' Now, from all these causes, and from the continual association of ill-assorted ideas, arose a mass of disorders in theology,
in morals, and in traditions: first, because the animals represented the stars, the characters of the animals, their appetites,
their sympathies, their aversions, passed over to the gods, and
were supposed to be their actions: thus, the god ichneumon
12*




138                    THE  RUINS.
made war against the god crocodile; the god wolf liked to eat
the god sheep; the god ibis devoured the god serpent; and the
Deity became a strange, capricious, and ferocious being, whose
idea deranged the judgment of man, and corrupted his morals
and his reason.
" Again, because in the spirit of their worship every family,
every nation, took for its special patron a star or constellation,
the affections or antipathies of the symbolic animal were transferred to its sectaries; and the partisans of the god dog were
enemies to those of the god wolf; those who adored the god ox
abhorred those who eat him; and religion became the senseless cause of phrensy and superstition.*
" Besides, the names of those animal-stars having, for this
same reason of patronage, been conferred on nations, countries,
mountains, and rivers, these objects were taken for gods, and
hence followed a mixture of geographical, historical, and mythological beings, which confounded all traditions.
" Finally, by the analogy of the actions which were ascribed
to them, the god-stars having been taken for men, for heroes,
for kings, kings and heroes took, in their turn, the actions of
gods for models, and by imitation became warriors, conquerors,
proud, lascivious, indolent, sanguinary; and religion consecrated the crimes of despots, and perverted the principles of government.
IV. Fourth system.  Worship of two Principles, or Dualism.' In the meantime, the astronomical priests, enjoying peace
and abundance in their temples, mnade every day new progress
in the sciences; and the system of the world unfolding gradually to their view, they raised successively various hypotheses,
as to its agents and effects, which became so many theological
systems.'" The voyages of the maritime nations, and the caravans of
the nomads of Asia and Africa, having given them a knowledge
of the earth from the Fortunate islands to Serica, and from the' These are Plutarch's own words, who relates that those various worships'were given by a king of Egypt to the different towns, to disunite
and enslave them. (And these kings had been chosen from the castes of
priests.) See Isis and Osiris.




THE RUINS.                       139
Baltic to the sources of the Nile, the comparison of the phenomena of various zones taught them the rotundity of the
earth, and gave birth to a new theory. Having remarked that
all the operations of nature, during the annual period, were re
ducible to two principal ones, that of producing, and that of destroying; that on the greater part of the globe these two operations were performed in the intervals of the two equinoxes, that
is to say, during the six months of summer everything was procreating and multiplying, and that during winter everything
languished and almost died; they supposed in NATURE two
contrary powers, which were in a continual state of contention
and exertion; and considering the celestial sphere in this view,
they divided the images which they figured upon it into two
halves, or hemispheres, so that the constellations which were
on the summer heaven formed a direct and superior empire, and
those which were on the winter heaven composed an antipode
and inferior empire. Therefore, as the constellations of summer accompanied the season of long, warm, and unclouded days,
and that of fruits and harvests, they were considered as the powers of light, fecundity, and creation, and, by a transition from a
physical to a moral sense, they became genii, angels of science,
of beneficence, of purity and virtue: and as the constellations
of winter were connected with long nights and polar fogs, they
were the genii of darkness, of destruction, of death, and, by
transition, angels of wickedness, of ignorance, of sin and vice.
By this arrangement the heaven was divided into.two domains,
two factions: and the analogy of human ideas already opened
a vast field to the errors of imagination; but the tnistake and the
illusion were determined, if not occasioned by a particular circumstance.*
"In the projection of the celestial sphere as traced by the astronomical priests,f the zodiac and the constellations, disposed
* Vale's globe and transparent celestial sphere would greatly assist in
comprehending the references to the earth and the heavens.
t The ancient priests had three kinds of spheres, which it may be use.
ful to make known to the reader.
" We read in Eubulus," says Porphyry " that Zoroaster was the first
who, having fixed upon a cavern pleasantly situated in the mountains ad.
Jacent to Persia, formed the idea of consecrating it to Mithra (the sun),
creator and father of all things; that is to say, having made in this cav.




140                      THE  RUINS.
in circular order, presented their halves in diametrical opposition: the hemisphere of winter, antipode of that of summer
was adverse, contrary, opposed to it. By a continual metaphor
ern several geometrical divisions, representing the seasons and the ele.
ments, he imitated on a small scale the order and disposition of the uni.
verse by Mithra. After Zoroaster, it became a custom to consecrate
caverns for the celebration of mysteries! so that, in like manner as temples were dedicated to celestial gods, rural altars to heroes and terrestrial
deities, subterranean abodes to infernal (inferior) deities, so caverns and
grottoes were consecrated to the world, the universe, and the nymphs;
and hence Pythagoras and Plato borrowed the idea of calling the world
a cavern, a cave. (Porph., antro Nympharum.)
" SLch was the first projection of a sphere in relief; and though the
Persians give the honor of the invention to Zoroaster, it is doubtless due
to the Egyptians; for we may suppose, from this projection being the
most simple, that it was the most ancient: the caverns of Thebes, full
of similar pictures, tend to strengthen this opinion."
The following was the second projection: "The prophets or hierophants of the Egyptians," says Bishop Synnesius, who had been initiated
in the mysteries, " do not permit the common workmen to form idols or
images of the gods; but they descend themselves into the sacred caves,
where they have concealed coffers containing certain spheres, upon
which they construct those images secretly, and without the knowledge
of the people, who despise simple and natural things, and wish for
prodigies and fables." (Synn., in Calvit.) That is, the ancient priests
had armilary spheres, like ours; and this passage, which so well
agrees with that of Chcerenon, gives us the key to all their theological
astrology.
Lastly, they had flat models of a very complicated nature, having ev.
ery fictitious division of decan and subdecan, with the hieroglyphic indications of their influence. Kirker has given us a copy of one of them in
his Egyptian  Edipus, and Gebelin, a figured fragment in his book of the
calendar (under the name of Egyptian Zodiac). " The ancient Egyptians," says the astrologer Julius Firmicus (Astron., lib. ii., c. iv., and
lib. iv., c. xvi.), " divide each sign of the zodiac into three sections; and
each section was under the direction of an imaginary being, whom they
called decan, or chief of ten: so that there were three decans in a
month, and thirty-six in a year. Now, these decans, who were also called
gods (theoi), regulated the destinies of mankind; and they were placed
particularly in certain stars. They afterward imagined in every ten three
other gods, whom they called Arbiters; so that there were nine for every month; and these were farther divided into an infinite number of
powers." (The Persians and Indians made their spheres on a similar
plan; and if a picture thereof were to be drawn from a description given
by Scaliger at the end of Manilius, we should find in it a precise defini.
tion of their hieroglyphics, for every article forms one.)




THE  RUINS.                        141
these words acquired a moral sense; and the adverse genii, or
angels, became revolted enemies. From that moment all the
astronomical history of the constellations was changed into a
political history; the heavens became a human state, where
hings happened as on the earth. Now, as the earthly states,
the greater part despotic, had already their monarchs, and as
the sun was apparently tle monarch of the skies, the summer
hemisphere,* empire of light, and its constellations, a people
of white angels, had for king an enlightened god, a creator intelligent and good. And as every rebel faction must have its
chief, the heaven of winter, the subterranean empire of darkness
and wo, and its stars, a people of black angels, giants, or demons,
had for their chief a malignant genius, whose character was applied by different people to the constellation which to them was
the most remarkable. In Egypt, it was primitively the scorpion, first zodiacal sign after libra, and for a long time chief of
the winter signs; then it was the bear, or polar ass, called typhon,t that is to say, deluge, on account of the rains which
deluge the earth during the dominion of that constellation. At
a later period in Persia,$ it was the serpent who, under the' It was for this reason the Persians always wrote the name of Ahrim.
anes inverted, thus:'sauauirlqv
t Typhon, pronounced touphon by the Greeks, is precisely the touphan
of the Arabs, which signifies deluge: and all these deluges in mythology
are nothing more than winter and the rains, or the overflowing of the
Nile; as the pretended conflagrations that are to destroy the world are
simply the summer season. And it is for this reason that Aristotle (De
Meteoris, lib. i., c. xiv.) says that the winter of the great cyclic year is
a deluge, and its summer a conflagration. "The Egyptians," says Porphyry, " employ every year a talisman in remembrance of the world; at
the summer solstice they mark their houses, flocks, and trees, with red,
supposing that on that day the whole world had been set on'fire. It was
also at the same period that they celebrated the Pyrrhic or fire dance."
(And this illustrates the origin of purification by fire and water; for hay.
ing denominated the tropic of Cancer, " Gate of heaven and of heat or
celestial fire," and that of Capricorn, " Gate of deluge or of water," it was
imagined that the spirits or souls who passed through these gates, in their
way to and from heaven, were scorched or bathed; hence the baptism
of'Mithra, and the passage through the flames, observed throughout the
East long before Moses.)
t That is, when the ram became the equinoctial sign, or rather when
the alteration of the skies showed that it was no longer the bull.




142'THE  RUINS.
name of Ahrimanes, formed the basis of the system of Zoroaster:
and it is the same, 0, Christians and Jews! that has become
your serpent of Eve (the celestial virgin), and that of the cross,
in both cases, emblem of Satan, the enemy and great adversary
of the ancient of days, sung by Daniel.
" In Syria, it was the hog or wild boar enemy of Adonis, because, in that country, the functions of the northern bear were
performed by the animal whose inclination for mire and dirt
was emblematic of winter; and this is the reason, followers of
Moses and of Mahomet! that you hold him in horror, in imitation of the priests of Memphis and Baalkek, who detested him
as the murderer of their God, the sun. This likewise, O Indians! is the type of your Chib-en, who was formerly the Pluto
of your brethren the Romans and Greeks: in like manner, your
Brahma, God the creator, is only the Persian Ormuzd and the
Egyptian Osiris, whose very name expresses creative power,
producer of forms. And these gods received a worship analogous to their attributes, real or imaginary, which worship was
divided into two branches, according to their characters. The
good god receives a worship of love and joy, from which are
derived all religious acts of gayety,* such as festivals, dances,
banquets, offerings of flowers, milk, honey, perfumes, in a
word, everything grateful to the senses and to the soul. The
evil god, on the contrary, received a worship of fear and pain,
whence originated all religious acts of the gloomy sort,t tears,
desolation, mourning, abstinence, bloody offerings, and cruel
sacrifices.
I All the ancient festivals respecting the return and exaltation of the
sun *ere of this description; hence tlhe hilaria of' the Roman calendar at
the passage (pascha) of the vernal equinox. The dances were imitations
of the march of the planets. Those of the Dervises still represent it tc
this day.
t " Sacrifices of blood," says Porphyry,." were only offered to demons
and evil genii, to avert their wrath. Demons are fond of blood, humidity,
stench." (Apud Euseb., Prcep. Evang., p. 1, 73.)
" The Egyptians," says Plutarch, " only offer bloody victims to Ty.
phon. They sacrifice to him a red ox; and the victim is held in abhor.
rence, and loaded with all the sills of the people (the goat of Moses).*"
See De Iside et Osiride.
Strabo says, speaking of Moses and the Jews, " Circumcision and the
prohibition of certain kinds of meat sprung from superstition." And I




TIlE  RUINS.                      1,43
" Hence arose that distinction of terrestrial beings into pure
and impure, sacred and abominable, according aq their species
were of the number of the constellations of one of these two
gods, and made part of his domain; and this produced on the
one hand the superstitions concerning pollutions and piurifications, and on the other the pretended efficacious virtues of amulets and talismans.
" You conceive now," continued the orator, addressing himself
to the Indians, Persians. Jews, Christians, and Mussulmans" you conceive the origin of those ideas of battles and rebellions,
which equally abound in all your mythologies. You see what
is meant by white and black angels; your cherubim and seraphirm, with heads of eagles, of lions, and of bulls; your deus,
devils, or demons, with horns of goats and tails of serpents;
your thrones and dominions, ranged in seven orders or gradations, like the seven spheres of the planets; all beings acting
the same parts, and endowed with the same attributes, in the
vedas, bibles, or zend-avestas, whether they have for chiefs Ormuzd or Brahma, Typhon or Chiven, Michael or Satan; whether
they appear under the, forms of giants with a hundred arms and
feet of serpents, or that of gods metamorphosed into lions, storks,
bulls, or cats, as in the sacred fables of the Greeks and Egyptians.  You perceive the successive filiation of these ideas, and
how, in proportion to their remoteness from their source, and
as the minds of men became refined, their gross forms have been
polished, and rendered less disgusting.
1" But, in the same manner as you have seen the system of
two opposite principles or gods arise from that of symbols and
interwoven into its texture, your attention shall now be called
to a new system which has grown out of this, and to which this
has served in its turn as a basis and support.
V. Moral and Mystical 1Worship, or System of a Future State,
1" Indeed, when the vulgar heard speak of a new heaven and
another world, they soon gave a body to these fictions: they
observe, respecting the ceremony of circumcision, that its object was to
take from the symbol of Osiris (Phallus) the pretended obstacle to fecun.
dity; an obstacle which bore the seal of Typhon, "whose nature," says
Plutarch," is made up of all that hinders, opposes, or obstructs."




144                    THE RUINS.
erected therein a real theatre of action, and their notions of as.
tronomy and geography served to strengthen, if not to originate
this illusion.
" On the one hand, the Phenician navigators who passed the
pillars of Hercules to fetch the tin of Thule, and the amber of
the Baltic, related that at the extremity of the world, the end
of the ocean (the Mediterranean), where the sun sets for the
countries of Asia, were the fortunate islands, the abode of eternal spring, and beyond were the Hyperborean regions, placed
under the earth (relatively to the tropics), where reigned an
eternal night.* From these stories misunderstood, and no
doubt confusedly related, the imagination of the people composed-the Elysian fieldsf regions of delight, placed in a world
below, having their heaven, their sun, and their stars, and Tartarus, a place of darkness, humidity, mire, and frost. Now, as
man, inquisitive of that which he knows not, and desirous of
protracting his existence, had already interrogated himself concerning what was to become of him after his death, as he had
early reasoned on the principle of life which animates his body,
and which leaves it Without deforming it, and as he had imagined airy substances, phantoms, and shades, he fondly believed that he should continue, in the subterranean world, that
life which it was too painful for him to lose; and these lower
regions seemed commodious for the reception of the beloved
objects which he could not willingly resign.
i" On the other hand, the astrological and geological priests
told such stories and made such descriptions of their heaven, as
accorded perfectly well with these fictions. Having, in their
metaphorical language, called the equinoxes and solstices the
gates of heaven, the entrance of the seasons, they explained the
terrestrial phenomena by saying, that'through the gate of horn
(first the bull, afterward the ram) and through the gate of cancer descended the vivifying fires which give life to vegetation in
the spring, and the aqueous spirits which bring, at the solstice,
the inundation of the Nile: that through the gate of ivory
(libra, formerly sagittarius or the bow) and by that of capricorn
or the urn, the emanations or influences of the heavens returned
* Nights of six months.
t Aliz, in the Phenician or Hebrew language, signifies dancing and re
joicing.




THIE RUINS.                     145
to their source, and reascended to their origin; and the milkyway, which passed through these gates of the solstices, seemed
to be placed there to serve them as a road or vehicle: besides,
in their atlas, the celestial- scene presented a river (the Nile,
designated by the windings of the hydra), a boat (the ship Argo), and the dog Syrius, both relative to this river, whose inundation they foretold. These circumstances, added to the preceding, and still further explaining them, increased their probability, and to arrive at Tartarus or Elysium, souls were obligedd
to cross the rivers Styx and Acheron in the boat of the ferryman Caron, and to pass through the gates of horn or ivory,
guarded by the dog Cerberus. Finally, these inventions were
applied to a civil use, and thence received a further consistency.
" Having remarked that, in their burning climate, the putrefaction of dead bodies was a cause of pestilential diseases, the
Egyptians, in many of their towns, had adopted the practice of
burying their dead beyond the limits of the inhabited country,
in the desert of the West. To go there, it was necessary to
pass the channels of the river, and consequently to be received
into a boat, and pay something to the ferryman, without which
the body, deprived of sepulture, must have been the prey of
wild beasts. This custom suggested to the civil and religious
legislators the means of a powerful influence on manners; and,
addressing uncultivated and ferocious men with the motives of
filial piety and a reverence for the dead, they established, as a
necessary condition, their undergoing a previous trial, which
should decide whether the deceased merited to be admitted to
the rank of the family in the black city. Such an idea accorded
too well with all the others not to be incorporated with them:
the people soon adopted it, and hell had its Minos and its Rhadamanthus, with the wand, the bench, the ushers, and the urn,
as in the earthly and civil state. It was then that God became
a moral and political being, a social legislator, so much the
more formidable, as this supreme legislator, this final judge,
was inaccessible and invisible: then it was that this fabulous
and mythological world, composed of such odd materials and
disjointed members, became a place of punishments and rewards, where divine justice was supposed to correct what was
vicious and erroneous in the judgment of men; and this spirit13




146                     THE  RUINS.
ual and mystical system acquired the more credit, as i' took
possession of man by all his natural inclinations: the oppressed
found in it the hope of indemnity, and the consolation of future
vengeance; the oppressor, expecting by rich offerings to purchase his impunity, formed out of the errors of the vulgar an
additional weapon of oppression; the chiefs of nations, the kings
and priests, found in this a new instrument of domination by the
privilege which they reserved to themselves of distributing the
favors and punishments of the great judge, according to the
merit or demerit of actions, which they took care to characterize as best suited their system.
"' This, then, is the manner in which an invisible and imaginary world has been introduced into the real and visible one;
this is the origin of those regions of pleasure and pain, of which
you Persians have.made your regenerated earth, your city of
resurrection placed under the equator, with this singular attribute, that in it the blessed cast no shade.* Of these materials,
* There is on this subject a passage in Plutarch so interesting and explanatory of the whole of this system, that we shall cite it entire. Having observed that the theory of good and evil had at all times occupied
the attention of naturalists and theologians, he adds: " Many suppose
there are two gods of opposite inclinations-one delighting in good, the
other in evil. The first of these is called particularly by the name of
God, the second by that of Genius or Demon. Zoroaster has denominated them Oromaze and Ahrimanes, and has said that of whatever falls
under the cognizance of our senses, light is the best representative of the
one, and darkness and ignorance of the other. He adds, -that Mithra is
an intermediate being, and it is for this reason that the Persians call
Mithra the mediator or intercessor. Each of these gods has distinct
plants and animals consecrated to him; for instance, dogs, birds, and
hedgehogs, belong to the good genius, and all aquatic animals to the
evil one.
" The Persians also say that Oromaze was born or formed out of the
purest light; Ahrimanes, on the contrary, out of the thickest darkness;
that Oromaze made six gods as good as himself, and Ahrimanes opposed
to them six wicked ones; that afterward Oromaze trebled himself (Her.
mes tris-megistus), and removed to a distance as remote from the earth;
that he there formed stars, and, among others, Syrius, which he placed
in the heavens as a guard and sentinel. He made also twenty-four other
gods, whom he enclosed in an egg; but Ahrimanes created an equal
number who cracked the egg, and from that moment good and evil were
mixed (in the universe). But Ahrimanes is one day to be conquered. and
the earth to be made equal and smooth, that all men may live happy.
"Theopompus adds, from the books of the magi, that one of these




THE  RUINS.                         147
Jews and Christians, disciples of the Persians, have you formed
you; Jerusalem of the apocalypse, your paradise, your heaven,
copiea  In ait its parts from the astrological heaven of Hermes:
and your hell, ye Mussulmans! your bottomless pit, surmounted by a bridge, your balance for weighing souls and their works,
your last judgment by the angels Monkir and Nekir, are likewise modelled from the mysterious ceremonies of the cave of
Mythra;* and your heaven differs not in the least from that of
Osiris, of Ormuzd, and of Brahma.
gods reigns in turn every three thousand years', during which the other
is kept in subjection; that they afterward contend with equal weapons
during the same space of time, but that in the end the evil Genius will
fall (never to rise again). Then men will become happy, and shall have
no shadow. But the god who meditates all these things reclines at present in repose, waiting to meet them. (De Iside et Osiride.)"
The allegory is evident through the whole of this passage. The egg
is the sphere of fixed stars, the world; the six gods of Oromaze are the
six signs of summer; those of Ahrimanes the six signs of winter. The
forty-eight other gods are the forty-eight constellations of the ancient
sphere, divided equally between Ahrimanes and Oromaze. The office
of Syrius, as guard and sentinel, tells us that the origin of these ideas
was Egyptian. Finally, the expression that the earth is to become equal
and smooth, and that the bodies of the happy shall cast no shadow,
proves that the equator was considered as their true paradise.
* In the factitious caves which priests everywhere constructed, they
celebrated mysteries which consisted, says Origen against Celsus, in im.
itating the motion of the stars, the planets, and the heavens. The ini.
tiated took the name of constellations, and assumed the figure of animals.
One was a lion, another a raven, and a third a ram. Hence the use ol
masks in the first representation of the drama. (See Antiq. devoilee,
vol. II., p. 244.) In the mysteries of Ceres, the chief in the procession
called himself the creator; the torch-bearer was denominated tne sun;
the person nearest to the altar, the moon; the herald, or deacon, Mercury. In Egypt, there was a festival in which men and women repre.
sented the year, the century, the seasons, the divisions of the day, and
they followed the procession of Bacchus. (Athen. lib. v., c. 7.) In the
cave of MIithra was a ladder with seven steps, representing the seven
spheres of the planets, by means of which souls ascended and descended
This is precisely the ladder in Jacob's visionl; which shows that at
that epoch the whole system was'ormed. There is in the royal library
a superb volume of pictures of th. Indian gods, in which the ladder is
represented with the souls of men tscending it.
See Bailly's Ancient Astronomy, where our assertions -especting the
knowledge of the priests are fully proved.




148                   THE RUINS.
VI. Sixth System.-The Animated World, or Worship of the
Universe under divers Emblems.
"While the nations were wandering in the dark labyrinth of
mythology and fables, the physical priests, pursuing their studies and inquiries into the order and disposition of the universe,
came to new conclusions and formed new systems concerning
powers and first causes.
" Long confined to simple appearances, they saw nothing in
the movement of tlie stars but an unknown play of luminous
bodies rolling round the earth, which they believed the central
point of all the spheres; but as soon as they discovered the rotundity of our planet, the consequences of this first fact led them
to new considerations, and, from induction to induction, they
rose to the highest conceptions in astronomy and physics.
1" Indeed, after having conceived this luminous idea, that the
terrestrial globe is a little circle inscribed in the greater circle
of the heavens, the theory of concentric circles served naturally
in their hypothesis to determine the unknown circle of the terrestrial globe by certain known points of the celestial circle;
and the measurement of one or more degrees of the meridian
gave with precision the whole circumference. Then, taking
for a compass the known diameter of the earth, some fortunate
genius applied it with a bold band to the boundless orbits of the
heavens; and man, the inhabitant of a grain of sand, embracing
the infinite distances of the stars, launched into the immensity
of space and the eternity of time: there he is presented with a
new order of the universe, of which the atom-globe which he
inhabited appeared no longer to be the centre: this important
post was reserved to the enormous mass of the sun, and that
body became the flaming pivot of eight surrounding spheres,
whose movements were henceforth subjected to precise calculation.
" It was already a great effort of the human mind to have
undertaken to determine the disposition and order of the great
engines of nature; but not stopping there, it still endeavored to
develop the mechanism, and discover the origin and the instinctive principle.' Hence, engaged in the abstract and metaphysical nature of motion and its first cause, of the inherent or




THE  RUINS.                       149
incidental properties of matter, its successive forms and its extension-that is to say, of time and space unbounded-the physical theologians lost themselves in a chaos of subtile reasoning
and scholastic controversy.
1" In the first place, the. action of the sun on terrestrial bodies
teaching them to regard his substance as a pure and elementary
fire, they made it the focus and reservoir of an ocean of igneous
and luminous fluid, which, under the name of ether, filled the
universe and nourished all beings. Afterward, having discovered, by a physical and attentive analysis, this same fire, or another perfectly resembling it, in the composition of all bodies,
and having perceived it to be the essential agent of that spontaneous movement which is called life in animals and vegetation
in plants, they conceived the mechanism and harmony of the
universe as of a homogeneous whole, of one identical body,
whose parts, though distant, had nevertheless an intimate relation; and the world was a living being, animated by the organic
circulation of an igneous and'even electrical fluid,* which, by a
term of comparison borrowed first from men and animals, had
the sun for a heart or focus.f
"From  this time, the physical theologians seem to have divided into several classes; one class, grounding itself on these
principles resulting from observation,'that nothing can be annihilated in the world; that the elements are indestructible;
that they change their combinations, but not their nature; that
the life and death of beings are but the different modifications
* The more I consider what the ancients understood by ether and
spirit, and what the Indians call akache, the stronger do I find the analogy between it and the electrical fluid. A luminous fluid, principle of
warmth and motion, pervading the universe, forming the matter of the
stars, having small round particles, which, insinuating themselves into
bodies, fill them by dilating itself, be their extent what it may: what
can more strongly resemble electricity?
t Natural philosophers, says Macrobius, call the sun the heart of the
world (c. 20, Som. Scip.) The Egyptians, says Plutarch, call the east
the face, the north the right side, and the south the left of the world
(because there the heart is placed). They continually compare the
universe to a man, and hence the celebrated Microcosm of the alchym.
ists. We observe, by the by,' that the alchymists, cabalists, freemasons, magnetizers, martinists, and all other such visionaries, are but the
erring disciples of this ancient school. Consult, likewise, the Pythago.
rean Ocellus Lucanus. and the JEdipus 7Egyptiacus of Kirker, t. Il., p. 205.
13*




I50                    HT1E  RUINS.
of the same atoms; that matter itself possesses properties which
give rise to all its modes of existence; that the world is eternal,
or unlimited in space and duration;' said' that the whole universe was God;' and, according to them, God was a being,
effect and cause, agent and patient, moving principle and thing
moved, having for laws the invariable properties that constitute
fatality: and this class conveyed their idea by the emblem of
Pan (the Great Whole), or of Jupiter, with a forehead of stars,
body of planets, and feet of animals, or of the orphic egg, whose
yolk, suspended in the centre of a liquid surrounded by a vault,
represented the globe of the sun swimming in ether in the midst
of the vault of heaven:* sometimes by a great round serpent,
representing the heavens where they placed the moving principle, and, for that reason, of an azure color, studded with golden
spots (the stars) devouring his tail-that is, folding and unfolding himself eternally like the revolutions of the spheres: sometimes by that of a man, having his feet joined together and tied,
to signify immutable existence; wrapped in a cloak of all colors, like the face of nature, and bearing on his head a golden
sphere, emblem of the sphere of stars: or by that of another
man, sometimes seated on the flower of the lotos borne on the
abyss of waters, sometimes lying on a pile of twelve cushions,
denoting the twelve celestial signs. And here, Indians, Japanese, Siamese, Tibetans, and Chinese, is the theology which,
founded by the Egyptians and transmitted to you, is preserved
in the pictures which you compose of Brahma, of Beddou, of
Sommonacodom, of Omito. This, ye Hebrews and Christians,
is likewise the opinion of which you have preserved a part in
* This comparison with the yolk of an egg refers, 1st, to its round and
yellow figure; 2d, to its central situation; 3d, to the germ or principle
of life contained in the yolk. May not the oval form allude to the el.
lipsis of the orbits?  I am inclined to this opinion. The word orphic
offers a further observation. Macrobius says (Som. Scip., c. 14, and
c. 20) that the sun is the brain of the universe, and that it is from analogy that the human skull is round, like the planet, the seat of intelligence: now, the word orph (by ain) signifies, in Hebrew, the brain and
its seat (cervix). Orpheus, then, is the same as Bedou or Baites; and
the Bonzes are those very Orphics represented by Plutarch as quacks,
who ate no meat, sold talismans, stones, etc., and deceived not only in.
dividuals but the governments. (See a learned Memoir of Freret, sur
les Orphiques, Acad. des Inscrip., tom. xxIII., 4to.)




THE  RUINS.                     151
your God moving on the face of the waters, by an allusion to
the wind, which, at the beginning of the world-that is, the departure of the spheres from the sign of cancer-announced the
inundation of the Nile, and seemed to prepare the creation.
VII. Seventh System. Worship of the SOUL of the WORLD, that
is to say, the Element of Fire, vital Principle of the Universe.
" But others, disgusted at the idea of a being at once effect
and cause, agent and patient, and uniting contrary natures in
the same nature, distinguished the moving principle from the
thing moved; and premising that matter in itself was inert, they
pretended that its properties were communicated to it by a distinct agent, of which it was itself only the cover or the case.
This agent was called by some the igneous principle, known to
be the author of all motion; by others it was supposed to be
the fluid called ether, which was thought more active and subtile; and, as in animals the vital and moving principle was called
a soul, a spirit, and as they reasoned constantly by comparisons,
especially those drawn from human beings, they gave to the
moving principle of the universe the name of soul, intelligence,
spirit; and God was the vital spirit which extended through all
beings and animated the vast body of the world. And this class
conveyed their idea sometimes by You-piter, essence of motion
and animation, principle of existence, or rather existence itself;
sometimes by Vulcan or Phtha, elementary principle of fire, or
by the altar of Vesta, placed in the centre of her temple, like
the sun amid the spheres; sometimes by Kneph, a human figure, dressed in dark blue, having in one hand a sceptre and a
girdle (the zodiac), with a cap of feathers, to express the fugacity of thought, and producing from his mouth the great egg.
",Now, as a consequence of this system, every being containing in itself a portion of the igneous and ethereal fluid, common and universal mover, and this fluid soul of the world being
the Divinity, it followed that the souls of all beings were a portion of God himself, partaking of all his attributes, that is, being
a substance indivisible, simple, and immortal; and hence the
whole system of the immortality* of the soul, which at first was
* In the system of the first spiritualists, the soul was not created with
or at the same time as the body, in order to be inserted in it: it existed




1 52                     THE  RUINS.
eternity.  Hence also its transmigrations, known by the name
of metempsychosis, that is, the passage of the vital principle
from one body to another; an idea which arose from the real
transmigration of the material elements. And behold, ye Inanteriorly and from all eternity. Such, in a few words, is the doctrine of
Macrobius on this head. Om. Scip. Spassim.
"There exists a luminous, igneous, subtile fluid, which, under the
name of ether and spiritus, fills the universe; it is the essential principle
and agent of motion and life; it is the deity. When an earthly body is
to be animated, a small round particle of this fluid gravitates through the
milky way toward the lunar sphere, where, when it arrives, it unites with
a grosser air, and becomes fit to associate with matter; it then enters
and entirely fills the body, animates it, suffers, grows, increases, and di.
minishes, with it; lastly, when the body dies, and its gross elements dissolve, this incorruptible particle quits it, and returns to the grand ocean
of ether, if not retained by its union with lunar air; it is this air (or gaz)
which, retaining the shape of the body, becomes a phantom or shade, the
perfect image of the deceased. The Greeks called this shade the image
or idol of the soul; the Pythagoreans, its chariot, its mould; and the
rabbinical school, its vehicle, or boat. When a man had conducted him.
self well in this world, this entire soul, that is, its chariot and ether, ascended to the moon, where a separation took place; the chariot lived in
the lunar elysium, and the ether returned to the fixed stars, that is, to
God; for (says Macrobius) the heaven of the fixed stars was by many
called God. (c. 14.)
" If a man had not lived virtuously, the soul remained on earth to bhe
purified, and wandered to and fro, like the shades of Homer, to whom
this doctrine must have been known in Asia, three centuries before
Pherecides and Pythagoras had revived it in Greece. Herodotus upon
this occasion says, that' the whole romance of the soul and its transmi.
grations was invented by the Egyptians, and propagated in Greece by
men who pretended to be its authors. I know their names,' adds he,'but shall not mention them. (Lib. ii.)  Cicero, however, has positively
informed us that it was Pherecides, master of Pythagoras. (Tuscul.,
lib. i., ~ 16.) In Syria and in Judea we find a palpable proof of its exist.
ence, five centuries before Pythagoras, in this phrase of Solomon, where
he says:' Who knoweth the spirit of a man, that it goeth upward? I
said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might
manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; even one
thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they
have all one breath, so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast;
for all is vanity.' Eccl., c. iii., v. 11."
And such had been the opinion of Moses, as has been justly observed
by the translator of Herodotus (Larcher. in his first edition, note 389 of




THE RUINS.                       153
dians, Boudhists, Christians, and Mussulmans! whence are
derived all your opinions on the spirituality of the soul; behold what was the source of the dreams of Pythagoras and
Plato, your masters, who were themselves but the echoes of
another, the last sect of visionary philosophers, which we will
proceed to examine.
VIII. Eighth System. TheWORLD-MACRINE: Worship of the
Demi- Ourgos, or Grand Artificer.
"Hitherto the theologians, employing themselves in examining the fine and subtile substances of ether or the generating
fire, had not, however, ceased to treat of beings palpable and
perceptible to the senses, and theology continued t- be the theory of physical powers, placed sometimes exclusively in the
stars, and sometimes disseminated through the universe; but
at this period certain superficial minds, losing the chain of ideas
which had directed them in their profound studies, or ignorant
of the facts on which they were founded, distorted all the conclusions that flowed from them by.the introduction of a strange
and novel chimera. They pretended that this universe, these
heavens, these stars, this sun, were only a machine of an ordinary kind; and, applying to this first hypothesis a comparison
drawn from the works of art, they raised an edifice of the most
whimsical sophisms.'A  machine,' said  they,' does not
make itself; it has had an anterior workman. its very existence
proves it. The world is a machine: therefore it had an artificer.'
"' Here, then, is the demi-ourgos, or grand artificer, constituted god autocratical and supreme. In vain the ancient philosophy objected to this, by saying the artificer himself must
have had parents and progenitors, and that they only added another link to the chain by taking eternity from the world and
giving it to its supposed author. The innovators, not content
with this first paradox, passed on to a second; and, applying to
their artificer the theory of the human understanding, they prebook ii.), where he says, also, that the immortality of the soul was not
introduced among the Hebrews till their intercourse with the Assyrians.
In other respects, the whole Pythagorean system, properly analyzed, ap,
pears to be merely a system of physics misunderstood.




154                   THE  RUINS.
tended that the demi-ourgos had framed his machine on a plan
pre-'existing in his understanding. Now, as their masters, the
naturalists, had placed in the regions of the fixed stars the great
primum mobile, under the name of intelligence abd reason, so
their mimics, the spiritualists, seizing this idea, applied it to
their demi-ourgos, and, making it a substance distinct and selfexistent, they called it mens, or logos (reason, or word). And
as they likewise admitted the existence of the soul of the world,
or solar principle, they found themselves obliged to compose
three ranks or gradations of divine beings, which were, first, the
demi-ourgos, or working-god; secondly, the logos, word, or
reason; thirdly, the spirit or soul (of the world). And here,
Christians! is the romance on which you have founded your
Trinity; here is the system which, born a heretic in the temples of Egypt, transported a pagan into the schools of Italy and
Greece, is now found to be catholic and orthodox by the conversion of its partisans, the disciples of Pythagoras and Plato, to
Christianity.
" It is thus that the Divinity, after having been, first, the visible and various action of the meteors and elements;
"Afterward, the combined powers of the stars considered in
their relations to terrestrial beings;
" After, these terrestrial beings themselves, by confounding
the symbols with their archetypes;
"' Next, the double power of nature in its two principal operations of producing and destroying;
" Again, the animated world, without distinction of agent and
patient, of effect and cause;
" Finally, the solar principle or the element of fire considered
as the only mover;
" It is thus that the Divinity is become, in the last resort, a
chimerical and abstract being; a scholastic subtilty of substance
without form, a body without a figure; a very delirium of the
mind, beyond the power of reason to comprehend. But vainly
does it seek in this last transformation to elude the senses; the
seal of its origin is too deeply imprinted on it to be effaced; and
its attributes, all borrowed from the physical attributes of the
universe, such as immensity, eternity, indivisibility, incomprehensibility; or on the moral affections of man, such as goodness, justice, majesty, etc.; its names even, all derived from the




THE  RUINS.                        155
physical beings* which were its types, and especially from the
sun, the planets, and the world, constantly bring to mind, in
spite of its corruptors, indelible marks of its real nature.
"Such is the chain of ideas which the human mind had already run through at an epoch previous to the records of history: and since their continuity proves that they were the produce of the same series of studies and labors, we have every
~ When analyzed, all the names of the Deity seem to be derived from
some material object, in which it was supposed to reside. We have given
many instances; let us add one more relative to our word god. This is
the deus of the Latins. which is but the theos of the Greeks. Now, by
the confession of Plato (in Cratylo), of Macrobius (Saturn., lib. i., chap.
xxiv.), and of Plutarch (Isis et Osiris), its root is thein, which signifies
to wander, like planein; that is to say, it is synonymous with planets,
because (add our authors) both the ancient Greeks and barbarians par.
ticularly worshipped the planets. I know that such inquiries into etymologies have been much decried; but if, as is the case, words are the
representative signs of ideas, the genealogy of the one becomes that of
the other, and a good etymological dictionary would be the most perfect
history of the human understanding. It would only be necessary to observe certain precautions in this inquiry, which have hitherto been neg.
lected, and particularly to make an exact comparison of the value of the
letters of the different alphabets. But, to continue our subject, we shall
add that, in the Phoenician language, the word thah (with ain) signifies
also to wander, and from it thein seems to be derived: if we suppose
deus to be derived from the Greek Zeus, a proper name of Youpi-ter,
having zaw, I live, for its root, its sense will be precisely that of you,
and will mean soul of the world, igneous principle. Div-us, which only
signifies genius, god of the second order, appears to me to come from
the oriental word div for dib, wolf and jackal, one of the emblems of the
sun. At Thebes (says Macrobius) the sun was painted under the form
of a wolf, or jackal (for there are no wolves in Egypt). The reason of
this emblem, doubtless, is, that the jackal, like the cock, announces by
its cries the rising of the sun; and this reason is confirmed by the
analogy of the words lykos, wolf, and lyke, light of the morning, whence
comes lux.
Dius, which is to be understood also of the sun, must be derived from
dih, a hawk. " The Egyptians," says Porphyry (Euseb., Prcep. Evang.,
page 92), " represent the sun under the emblem of a hawk, because
this bird soars to the highest regions of air where light abounds." And
in reality we continually see at Cairo thousands of these birds, hovering
in the air, whence they descend only to stun us with their shrieks,
which are like the monosyllable dih; and here, as in the preceding ex
ample, we find an analogy between the word dies, day, light, and dius
god, sun




166;                     THE  RUINS.
reason to place their origin in Egypt, the cradle of their first
elements; and their progress there may have been rapid, because the idle curiosity of the physical priests had no other
food, in the retirement of the temples, but the enigma of the
universe always present to their minds; and because, in the political districts into which that country was for a long time divided, every state had its college of priests, who, being by turns
auxiliaries or rivals, hastened by their disputes* the progress of
science and discovery.'A most plausible proof that all these systems were invented in
Egypt is, that this is the only country where we see a complete body of
doctrine formed from the remotest antiquity.
Clemens Alexandrinus has transmitted to us (Stromat., lib. vi.) a curi.
ous detail of the forty-two volumes which were borne in the procession
of Isis. " The leader," said he, *' or chanter, carries one of the sym.
bolic instruments of music, and two of the books of Mercury, one con.
taining hymns of the gods, the other the list of kings. Next to him the
horoscope (calculator of time) carries a palm and a dial, symbols of as.
trology; he must know by heart the four books of Mercury which treat
of astrology, the first on the order of the planets, the second on the
risings of the sun and moon, and the last two on the rising and aspect of
the stars. Then comes the sacred writer, with feathers on his head (like
Kneph) and a book in his hand, together with ink and a reed to write
with (as is still the practice among the Arabs). He must be versed in
hieroglyphics, must understand the description of the universe, the course
of the sun, moon, and planets; be acquainted with the division of Egypt
(into thirty-six names), with the course of the Nile, with instruments,
measures, sacred ornaments. and holy places, etc. Next comes the stole.
bearer, carrying the cubit of justice or measure of the Nile, and a chalice
for the libations: ten volumes treat of the sacrifices, hymns, prayers, offerings, ceremonies, festivals. Lastly arrives the prophet, bearing in his
bosom, and exposed to view, a pitcher: he is followed by persons carrying loaves of bread (as at the marriage of Cana). This prophet, as pres.
ident of the mysteries, learns ten (other) sacred volumes concerning the
laws, the gods, and the discipline of the priests, etc. Now there are in
all forty-two volumes, thirty-six of which are learned by these persona.
ges, and the remaining six are reserved for the pastophores; they treat
of medicine, the construction of the human body (anatomy), diseases,
remedies, instruments, etc."
We leave the reader to deduce all the consequences of such an ency.
clopedia. It was ascribed to Mercury; but Jamblicus tells us that all
books composed by the priests were dedicated to that god. who, being a
genius or decan opening the zodiac, presided over enterprise: he is the
Janus of the Romans, the Guianese of the Indians; and it is remarkable
that Yanus and Guianese are synonymous. In short, it appears that thesd




THE  RUINS.                        157
" There happened already on the borders of the Nile, what
has since been repeated in every country: as soon as a new
system was formed, its novelty excited quarrels and schisms;
then, gaining credit by persecution itself, sometimes it effaced
antecedent ideas, sometimes it modified and incorporated them;
then, by the intervention of political revolutions, the aggregation
of states and the mixture of nations confused all opinions; and
the filiation of ideas being lost, theology fell into a chaos, and
became a mere logogryph of old traditions no longer understood.  Religion, having strayed from its object, was now nothing more than a political engine to conduct the credulous vulgar, and it was used for this purpose, sometimes, by men
credulous themselves and dupes of their own visions, and sometimes by bold and energetic spirits in pursuit of great objects of
ambition.
IX. Religion of Moses, or Worship of the Soul of the World
(Youpiter).
"Such was the legislator of the Hebrews, who, wishing to
separate his nation from all others, and to form a distinct and
solitary empire, conceived the design of establishing its basis on
religious prejudices, and of raising around it a sacred rampart
of opinions and of rites.  But in vain did he proscribe the worship of the symbols which prevailed in lower Egypt and Phoenicia; his god was, nevertheless, an Egyptian god,* invented
by those priests of whomn Moses had been the disciple; and
Yahouh,t betrayed by its very name, essence (of beings), and
books are the source of all that has been transmitted to us by the Greeks
and Latins in every science, even in alchymy, necromancy, etc. What
is most to be regretted in their loss is that part which related to the principles of medicine and diet, in which the Egyptians appear to have made
a considerable progress and useful observations.
* " At a certain period," says Plutarch (De Iside), " all the Egyptians
have their animal gods painted. The Thebans are the only people who
do not employ painters, because they worship a god whose form comes
not under the senses, and can not be represented." And this is the god
whom Moses, educated at Heliopolis, adopted; but the idea was not of
his invention.
t Such is the true pronunciation of the Jehovah of the moderns, who
Violate, in this respect, every rule of criticism, since it is evident that the
14




158                      THE  RUINS.
by its symbol, the burning-bush, is only the soul of the world,
the moving principle which the Greeks soon after adopted under
the same denomination in their Youpiter, generating being;
ancients, particularly the eastern Syrians and Phoenicians, were acquainted
neither with the j nor the v, borrowed from the Tartars. The subsisting
usage of the Arabs, which we have re-established here, is confirmed by
Diodorus, who calls the God of Moses law (lib. i.); and law and Iahouh
are manifestly the same word: the identity continues in that of loupiter,
but, in order to render it more complete, we shall demonstrate the signification to be the same.
In Hebrew, that is to say, in one of the dialects of the common language of lower Asia, the word Yahouh is equivalent to our periphrasis,
He who is, the being that exists; in other words, The principle of life,
the mover, or even motion (the universal soul of beings). Now what is
Jupiter? Let us hear the Greeks and Latins explain their theology:
" The Egyptians (says Diodorus), after Manetho, priest of Memphis,
the Egyptians, assigning names to the five elements, called spirit (or
ether) Youpiter, on account of the true meaning of that word; for spirit
is the source of life, author of the vital principle in animals; and for this
reason they considered him as the father, the generator of beings. For
the same reason Homer says,'Father and king of men and gods.'"
(Diod., lib. i., sect. i.)
" Theologians," says Macrobius, " consider Youpiter as the soul of
the world; hence the words of Virgil:' Muses, let us begin with Youpiter: the world is full of Youpiter (Somn. Scip., c. xvii.);' and in the
Saturnalia he says,' Jupiter is the sun himself.' It was this also which
made Virgil say,' The spirit nourishes the life (of beings), and the soul,
diffused through the vast members (of the universe), agitates the whole
mass and forms but one immense body.' "
" loupiter," say the very ancient verses of the Orphic sect, which originated in Egypt, verses collected by Onomacritus in the days of Pisistratus-" Ioupiter, represented with the thunder in his hand, is the beginn,ng, origin, end, and middle of all things: a single and universal power,
he governs all, heaven, earth, fire, water, the elements, day, and night.
These are what constitute his immense body: his eyes are the sun and
moon; he is space and eternity: in fine (adds Porphyry), Jupiter is the
world, the universe, that which constitutes the existence and the life of
all beings. Now (continues the same author), as philosophers differed
in opinion respecting the nature and constituent parts of this god, and as
they could invent no figure that could represent all his attributes, they
painted him in the form of a man. He is in a sitting posture, in allusion
to his immutable essence; the upper part of his body is uncovered, be.
cause it is in the upper regions of the universe (the stars) that he is most
conspicuous. He is covered from the waist downward, because respecting terrestrial things he is more mysterious. He holds a sceptre in his
left hand, because it is the side of the heart, and the heart is the seat of




THE  RUINS.                        159
and under that of Ei, existence, which the Thebans consecrated
by the name of Kneph; which Sais worshipped under the emblem  of Isis veiled, with this inscription:'I am  all that has
been, that is, and that shall be, and no mortal has raised my
veil;' which Pythagoras honored under the name of Vesta, and
which the stoic philosophy defined precisely by calling it the
principle of fire. In vain did Moses wish to blot from his religion everything which had relation to the stars; many traits
call them to mind in spite of all he has done: the seven luminaries or planets of the great candlestick, the twelve stones or
signs in the urim of the high priest, the feast of the two equinoxes, entrances and gates of the two hemispheres, the ceremony of the lamb or celestial ram; lastly, the name even of Osiris*
the understanding, which (in human beings) regulates every action."
(Euseb., Prcepar. Evang., p. 100.)
The following passage of the geographer and philosopher, Strabo, removes every doubt as to the identity of the ideas of Moses and those of
the heathen theologians:" Moses, who was one of the Egyptian priests, taught that it was a
monstrous error to represent the Deity under the form of animals, as the
Egyptians did, or in the shape of men, as was the practice of the Greeks
and Africans; that alone is the Deity (said he) which constitutes heaven,
earth, and being; that which we call the world, the sum of all things,
nature; and no reasonable person will think of representing such a being
by the image of any one of the objects around us: it is for this reason
that, rejecting every species of images (idols), Moses wished the Deity
to be worshipped without emblems, and according to his proper nature;
and he accordingly ordered a temple worthy of him to be erected. etc."
Geograph., lib. xvi., p. 1104, ed. of 1707.
The theology of Moses has, therefore, differed in no respect from that
of the worshippers of the soul of the world, that is, from the Stoics and
Epicureans.
As to the history of Moses, Diodorus properly represents it, when he
says (lib. xxxiv. and xl.) that " the Jews were driven out of Egypt during a famine when the country was full of foreigners, and that Moses, a
man of extraordinary prudence and courage, seized this opportunity of
establishing his nations in the mountains of Judea."  As to 600,000 men,
whom Exodus gives him, it is an error of the transcribers, the proof of
which, taken from the books themselves, is to be found in the first vo!ume of New Researches on Ancient History, p. 162, and following.
* It is expressly mentioned in Deuteronomy, c. xxxii.: " The works
of Tsour are perfect."  Now Tsour has been translated by the word
Creator; its proper signification is to give forms: and this is one of the
definitions of Osiris in Plutarch.




160                   THE RUINS.
preserved in his canticle, and the ark or coffer, an imitation o
the tomb in which that god was laid, all remain as so many witnesses of the filiation of his ideas, and of their derivation from
the common source.
X. Religion of Zoroaster.
" Such also was Zoroaster, who, two centuries after Moses,
revived and moralised among the Medes and Bactrians the whole
Egyptian system of Osiris and Typhon, under the names of
Ormuzd and Ahrimanes; who, to explain the system of nature,
supposed two great gods or powers, one occupied in creating
and producing in an empire of light and genial heat (represented by summer), and therefore god of science,-beneficence, and
virtue; the other occupied in destroying in an empire of darknsss and cold (represented by the pole of winter), and therefore god of ignorance, malevolence, and sin: who, by figurative
expressions, afterward misunderstood, called creation of the
world the renewal of nature in spring; called resurrection the
renewal of the periods of the stars in their conjunctions; future life, hell, and paradise, what was only the Tartarus and
Elysium of the astrologers and geographers; in a word, he did
nothing but consecrate the pre-existing dreams of the mystical
system.
XI. Brahmism, or Indian System.
"And such, too, was the Indian legislator, who, under the
name of Menou, preceded Zoroaster and Moses, and consecrated, on the banks of the Ganges, the doctrine of the three principles, or gods known to the Greeks, one of whom, named
Brahma, or Joupiter, was author of all production or creation
(the sun in spring); the second, named Chiven, or Pluto, was
the god of all destruction (the sun in winter); and the third,
named Vichenou, or Neptune, was god the preserver of the
stationary state (the sun in the solstices, stator): all three distinct, and yet forming all three only one god or power, who,
sung in the vedas, as in the orphic hymns, is no other than the
three-eyed Joupiter,* or sun with three modes of action, in the
* Eye and sun are expressed by the same word in most of the ancien
languages of Asia.




THE RUINS.                       161
three ritous or seasons. This is the origin of all the trinitary
system subtilized by Pythagoras and Plato, and totally disfigured by their interpreters.
XII. Boudhism, or Mystical System.
"Such, in fine, were the moralist reformers revered after
Menou, under the names of Boudah, Gaspa, Chekia, Goutama,
etc., who, from the principles of the metempsychosis, variously
modified, deduced mystical doctrines, useful at first, because
they inspired their sectaries with a horror of murder, compassion for every feeling being, fear of the punishments and hope
of the rewards reserved for virtue and vice, in another life and
under a new form; but which afterward became pernicious, by
the abuse of a visionary system of metaphysics, that endeavored
to oppose the natural order, and pretended that the palpable and
material world was a fantastical illusion; that the existence of
man was a dream from which he awoke only at his death; that
his body was an impure prison which he ought to quit as soon
as possible, or else a coarse covering, which, to be pervaded by
the internal light, should be attenuated and rendered diaphanous
by fasting, macerations, contemplations, and a number of anchoritic practices so strange that the astonished vulgar could
only explain the character of their authors by considering them
as supernatural beings, and were only embarrassed to know if
they were God humanized or man deified.," These are the materials which existed in a scattered state
for many centuries in Asia, when a fortuitous concourse of
events and circumstances, on the borders of the Euphrates and
the Mediterranean, served to form them into new combinations.
XIII. Christianity, or the Allegorical Worship of the Sun, under the cabalistical names of Chris-en, or Christ, and Yesus,
or Jesus.
" In constituting a separate nation, Moses strove in vain to
defend it against the invasion of foreign ideas. An invincible
inclination, founded on the affinity of their origin, had constantly
brought back the Hebrews toward the worship of the neighbor
14*




f162                   THE  RUINS.
ing nations; and the commercial and political relations which
necessarily existed between them, strengthened this propensity
from day to day. As long as the constitution of the state remained entire, the coercive force of the government and laws
opposed these innovations and retarded their progress; nevertheless, the high places were full of idols, and the god Sun had
his chariot and horses painted in the palaces of the kings, and
even in the temples of Yahouh. But when the conquests of
the sultans of Nineveh and Babylon had dissolved the bands of
civil power, the people, left to themselves, and solicited by their
conquerors, restrained no longer their inclination for profane
opinions, and they were publicly professed in Judea. First, the
Assyrian colonies, which came and occupied the lands of the
tribes, filled the kingdom of Samaria with dogmas of the magi,
which very soon penetrated into the kingdom of Judah. Afterward, Jerusalem being subjugated, the Egyptians, Syrians, and
Arabs, entering this defenceless country, introduced their opinions, and the religion of Moses was doubly mutilated. Besides,
the priests and great men, being transported to Babylon and
educated in the sciences of the Kaldeans, imbibed, during a residence of fifty years, the whole of their theology; and from that
moment the dogmas of the hostile genius (Satan),* the archangel Michael, the ancient of days (Ormuzd), the rebel angels,
the battles in heaven, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection, all unknown to Moses, or rejected by his total silence respecting them, were introduced and naturalized among
the Jews.
"' The emigrants returned to their country with these ideas;
and their innovation at first excited disputes between their partisans the Pharisees, and their opponents the Sadducees, who
maintained the ancient national worship. But the former, aided
by the propensities of the people, and their habits already contracted, and supported by the Persians, their deliverers and mass " The names of the angels and of the months, such as Gabriel, Michael, Yar, Nisan," etc., came from Babylon with the Jews, says ex.
pressly the Talmud of Jerusalem. See Beausobre, Histoire du Manich,
vol. 11, p. 624, where he proves that the saints of the calendar are an
imitation of the 365 angels of the Persians; and Jamblicus, in his Egyp.
tian Mysteries, sec. 2, c. 3, speaks of angels, archangels, seraphims, etc.,
like a true Christian




THI: RUtINS                        163
ters, gained the ascendant over the latter, and the sons of Moses consecrated the theology of Zoroaster.*
"A fortuitous analogy between two leading ideas was highly
favorable to this coalition, and became the basis of a last system,
not less surprising in the fortune it has had in the world, than
in the causes of its formation.,"After the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Samaria,
some judicious men foresaw the same destiny for Jerusalem,
which they did not fail to predict and publish; and their predictions had the particular turn of being terminated by prayers
for a re-establishment and regeneration, uttered in the form of
prophecies. The hierophants, in their enthusiasm, had painted
a king as a deliverer, who was to re-establish the nation in its
ancient glory: the Hebrews were to become once more a powerful, a conquering nation, and Jerusalem the capital of an empire extended over the whole earth.
" Events having realized the first part of these predictions,
the ruin of Jerusalem, the people adhered to the second with a
firmness of belief in proportion to their misfortunes; and the
afflicted Jews expected, with the impatience of want and desire,
this victorious king and deliverer who was to come and save the
nation of Moses, and restore the empire of David.," On the other hand, the sacred and mythological traditions
of preceding times had spread through all Asia a dogma perfectly analogous. The cry there was a great mediator, a final
judge, a future savior, a king, god, conqueror, and legislator,
who was to restore the golden age upon earth,f to deliver it
from the dominion of evil, and bring men back to the empire
of good, peace, and happiness. The people seized and cherished these ideas with so much the more avidity, as they found
in them a consolation under that deplorable state of suffering
" " The whole philosophy of the gymnosophists (says Diogenes Laer.
tius), on the authority of an ancient writer, is derived from that of the
Magi; and many assert that of the Jews to have the same origin." (Lib.
1, c. 9.) Megasthenes, an historian of repute in the days of Seleucus
Nicanor, and who wrote particularly upon India, speaking of the philos.
ophy of the ancients respecting natural things, puts the Brahmins and
the Jews precisely on the same footing.
t This is the reason of the application of the many pagan oracles to
Jesus, and particularly the fourth eclogue of Virgil and the sybilline
verses so celebrated among the ancients,




164                    THE  RUINS.
into which they had been plunged by the devastations of suc.
cessive conquests, and the barbarous despotism of their governments. This conformity between the oracles of nations and
those of the prophets, excited the attention of the Jews; and
doubtless the prophets had the art to compose their descriptions after the style and genius of the sacred books employed in
the pagan mysteries. There was, therefore, a general expectation in Judea of a great ambassador, a final savior, when a singular circumstance determined the epoch of his coming.
"It is found in the sacred books of the Persians and Kaldeans, that the world, composed of a total revolution of twelve
thousand, was divided into two partial revolutions, one of which,
the age and reign of good, terminated in six thousand, and the
other, the age and reign of evil, was to terminate in six thousand more.
"By these records, the first authors had understood the annual revolution of the great celestial orb, called the world (a
revolution composed of twelve months or signs, divided each
into a thousand parts); and the two systematic periods of winter and summer, composed each of six thousand. These expressions, wholly equivocal and badly explained, having received
an absolute and moral, instead of a physical and astrological
sense, it happened that the annual world was taken for the secular world, the thousand of the zodiacal divisions for a thousand
of years; and supposing, from the state of things, that they
lived in the age of evil, they inferred that it would end with the
six thousand pretended years.*
" Now, according to calculations admitted by the Jews, they
began to reckon near six thousand years since the (supposed)
creation of the world. This coincidence caused a fermentation
in the public mind. Nothing was thought of but the approach* Read upon this subject the 17th chapter of the 1st volume of New
Researches on Ancient History, where the mythology of the creation is
explained. The septuagint reckoned five thousand and nearly six hundred years; and this calculation was generally adopted. It is well
known how much, in the first ages of the church, this opinion of the end
of the world agitated the minds of men. In the sequel, the general
councils, taking courage, pronounced the expectation that prevailed
heretical, and its believers were called millenarians: a circumstance
curious enough, since it is evident from the history of the gospels that
Jesus was a millenarian, and consequently a heretic.




THE  RUINS.                       165
ing end; they consulted the hierophants and the mystical books,
which differed as to the term.  The great restorer was expected
and desired; he was so much spoken of, that some person finally
was said to have seen him, or some one of a heated imagination
fancied himself such and acquired proselytes, who, deprived of
their leader by an incident true no doubt, but obscurely recorded, gave rise by their reports to a rumor which was gradually
converted into an historical fact. Upon this first basis, all the
circumstances of mythological traditions took their stand, and
produced an authentic and entire system, which it was no longer
permitted to call in question.
" These mythological traditions recounted that,'in the beginning, a woman and a man had, by their fall, introduced into
the world sin and misery.'
"' By this was denoted the astronomical fact that the celestial
virgin and the herdsman (Bootes), by setting heliacally at the
autumnal equinox, delivered the world to the wintry constellations, and seemed, on falling below the horizon, to introduce
into the world the genius of evil (Ahrimanes), represented by
the constellation of the serpent.*
"' These traditions related, that the woman had decoyed and
seduced the man.
"' And, in fact, the virgin setting first seems to draw the herdsman after her.
"That the woman tempted him by offering him fruit fair to
the sight, and good to eat, which gave the knowledge of good
and evil.
"And, in fact, the virgin holds in her hand a branch of fruit
which she seems to offer to the herdsman; and the branch,
emblem of autumn, placed in the picture of Mithra between
* " The Persians (says Chardin) call the constellation of the serpent
Ophiucus, serpent of Eve; and this serpent Ophiucus, or Ophioneus,
plays a similar part in the theology of the Phenicians; for Pherecydes,
their disciple and the master of Pythagoras, said:' that Ophioneus Ser.
pentinus had been chief of the rebels against Jupiter.'" (See Mars.
Ficin. Apol. Socrat., p. m. 797, col. 2.) I shall add, that aephah [with
ain] signifies in Hebrew viper, serpent.
In a physical sense, to seduce, seducere, means only to attract, to draw
after one.
See this picture of Mithra in Hyde, p. 111, edit. of 1760, de Religione
Veterum Persarum.




166                     THE RUINS.
winter and summer, seems to open the door and give knowledge,
mne sey of good and evii.
"1 That this couple had been driven from the celestial garden,
and that a cherub with a flaming sword had been placed at the
gate to guard it.
" And, in fact, when the virgin and the herdsman fall beneath
the western horizon, Perseus rises on the other side;* and this
genius, with a sword in his hand, seems to drive them from
the summer heaven, the garden and dominion of fruits and
flowers.
"' That of this virgin should be born, spring up, an offspring,
a child, who should bruise the head of the serpent, and deliver
the world from sin.
"This denotes the sun, which, at the moment of the winter
solstice, precisely when the Persian magi drew the horoscope
of the new year, was placed on the bosom of the virgin, rising
heliacally in the eastern horizon. On this account he was figured in their astrological pictures under the form of a child
suckled by a chaste virgin,f and became afterward, at the vernal
* Rather the head of Medusa, that head of a woman once so beautiful,
which Perseus cut off, and which he holds in his hand, is only that of
the Virgin, whose head sinks below the horizon at the very moment that
Perseus rises; and the serpents which surround it are Ophiucus and the
polar dragon, who then occupy the zenith. This shows us in what man.
ner the ancient astrologers composed all their figures and fables. They
took such constellations as they found at the same time on the circle of
the horizon, and, collecting the different parts, they formed groups which
served them as an almanac in hieroglyphic characters. Such is the se.
cret of all their pictures, and the solution of all their mythological mon.
sters. The Virgin is also Andromeda, delivered by Perseus from the
whale that pursues her [pro-sequitur].
t Such was the picture of the Persian sphere cited by Aben-Ezra, in
the Ccelum Poeticum of Blaeu, p. 71. " The division of the first decan
of the Virgin," says that writer, " represents a beautiful virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in her hand, and suck.
ling an infant called Iesus by some nations, and Christ in Greek."
There is to be found in the French king's library an Arabian manu.
script (No. 1,165), in which is a picture of the twelve signs; and that
of the Virgin represents a young girl with an infant by her side. The
whole scene, indeed, of the birth of Jesus is to be found in the adjacent
part of the heavens. The stable is the constellation of the charioteer
and the goat, formerly capricorn-a constellation called prmsepe Jovis
Heniochi, stable of Iou: and the word Iou is found in the name of Iou.




THE  RUINS.                        167
equinox, the ram, or lamb, triumphant over the constellation of
the serpent, which disappeared from the skies.
" That, in his' infancy, this restorer of divine and celestial nature would live abased, humble,* obscure and indigent.
" And this, because the winter sun is abased below the horizon, and that this first period of his four ages or seasons is a
time of obscurity, scarcity, fasting, and want.
"That, being put to death by the wicked, he had risen gloriously; that he had reascended from hell to heaven, where he
would reign for ever.'
"This is a sketch of the life of the sun, who, finishing his career at the winter solstice, when Typhon and the rebel angels
gain the dominion, seem to be put to death by them; but who
soon after is born again, and rises into the vault of heaven, where
he reigns.f
"' Finally, these traditions went so far as to mention even his
astrological and mysterious names, and inform us that he was
seph [Joseph]. At no great distance is the ass of Typhon [the great
bear], and the ox or bull, the ancient attendants of the manger. Peter,
the porter, is Janus, with his keys and bald forehead; the twelve apos.
tles are the genii of the twelve months, etc. This virgin has acted
very different parts in the various systems of mythology. She has been
the Isis of the Egyptians, who said of her in one of their inscriptions
cited by Julian, " The fruit I brought forth is the sun."' Most of the
traits mentioned by Plutarch apply to her, in the same manner as those
of Osiris apply to Bootes. Also, the seven principal stars of the bear,
called David's chariot, were called the chariot of Osiris (see Kirker);
and the crown that is situated behind, formed of ivy, was called Chen.
Osiris-Osiris's tree. The Virgin has likewise been Ceres, whose mys.
teries were the same with those of Isis and Mithra. She has been the
Diana of Ephesus, the great goddess of Syria; Cybele, drawn by lions;
Minerva, the mother of Bacchus; Astrea, a chaste virgin taken up into
heaven at the end of the golden age; Themis, at whose feet is the bal.
ance that was put in her hands; the Sybil of Virgil, who descends into
hell, or sinks below the hemisphere, with a branch in her hand, etc.
* This word humble comes from the Latin humils, humi-jacens-lying
on or inclined toward the ground; and the physical signification is always found to be the root of the abstract and moral sense.
t Resurgere, to rise a second time, can not signify to return to life, but
in a bold, metaphor-cal sense; and we see continually mistakes of this
kind result from the ambiguous meaning of the words made use of in an.
tient tradition.




16B                      THE  RUINS.
called sometimes Chris,* that is to say, preserver; and from
that ye Indians have made your god Chris —n or Chris-na; and
ye Greek and Western Christians, your Chris-tos, son of Mary,
is the same: sometimes he is called Yes, by the union of three
letters, which by their numerical value form the number 608,
one of the solar periods:f and this, Europeans, is the name
which, with the Latin termination, is become your Iesus, or
Jesus, the ancient and cabalistic name attributed to young Bacchus, the clandestine (nocturnal) son of the virgin Minerva,
* The Greeks used to express by x, or the Spanish jota, the aspirated ha
of the Orientals, who said haris: in Hebrew, heres signifies the sun; but
in Arabic, the radical word means to guard, to preserve, and haris, guardian, preserver. It is the proper epithet of Vichenou, which demonstrates
at once the identity of the Indian and Christian trinities, and their common origin. It is manifestly bat one system, which, divided into two
branches, one in the east, and the other in the west, assumed two different forms; its principal trunk is the Pythagorean system of the soul of
the world, or Ioupiter. The epithet piter or father having been applied
to the demi-ourgos of the Platonicians, gave rise to an ambiguity which
caused an inquiry to be made after the son. In the opinion of the philosophers, it was the understanding, nous and logos, from which the Latins
made their verbum; and thus we'clearly perceive the origin of the eternal father and of the verb, his son, proceeding from him (mens ex Deo
nata, says Macrobius): the anima or spiritus mundi was the Holy Ghost;
and it is for this reason that Manes, Basilides, Valentinius, and other pretended heretics of the first ages, who traced things to their source, said
that God the father was the supreme, inaccessible light of heaven (the
first circle, or the aplanes); the Son, the secondary light, resident in the
sun; and the Holy Ghost, the atmosphere of the earth. (See Beausob.,
vol. ii., p. 586.) Hence among the Syrians his emblem of a dove, the
bird of Venus Urania, that is, of the air. " The Syrians (says Nigidius,
in Germanico) assert that a dove sat several days in the Euphrates on
the egg of a fish, whence Venus was born." Sextus Empiricus also observes (lnst. Pyrrh., lib. iii., c. xxiii.) that the Syrians abstain from eat.
ing doves; this intimates to us a period commencing in the sign of Pisces
(in the winter solstice). We may further observe that, if Chris comes
from Harisch by a chin, it will signify artificer, an epithet belonging to
the sun. These variations, which must have embarrassed the ancients
prove it to be the real type of Jesus, as had been already remarked in
the time of Tertullian. " Many (says this writer) suppose, with greater
probability, that the sun is our God, and they refer us to the religion of
the Persians." (Apologet., c. xvi.)
t See a curious ode to the sun by Martianus Capella, translated by Ge.
belin (volume of the Calendar, pp. 547, 548).




THE RUINS.                      1C9
who, in the history of his whole life, and even of his death,
brings to mind the history of the God of the Christians, that is,
of the star of day, of which they are each of them the emblems."
Here a great murmur having arisen among all the Christian
groups, the Mussulmans, the Lamas, the Indians, called them
to order, and the orator went on to finish his discourse:" You know, at present," said he, " how the rest of this system was composed in the chaos and anarchy of the first three
centuries; what a multitude of singular opinions divided the
minds of men, and armed them with an enthusiasm and a reciprocal obstinacy, because, being equally founded on ancient tradition, they were equally sacred. You know how the government, after three centuries, having embraced one of these sects,
made it the orthodox, that is to say, the predominant religion,
to the exclusion of the rest, which, being inferior in number, became heretical; you know how and by what means of violence
and seduction this religion was propagated, extended, divided,
and enfeebled; how, six hundred years after the Christian innovation, another system was formed from it, and from that of
the Jews; and how Mahomet found the means of composing a
political and theological empire at the expense of those of Moses
and the vicars of Jesus.
1" Now, if you take a review of the whole history of the spirit
of religion, you will see that in its origin it has had no other
author than the sensations and wants of man; that the idea of
God has had no other type and model than those of physical
powers, material beings producing either good or evil by impressions of pleasure or pain on sensitive beings; that, in the
formation of all these systems, the spirit of religion has always
followed the same course, and been uniform in its proceedings;
that in all of them.the dogma has never failed to represent, under the name of gods, the operations of nature, the passions and
prejudices of mnen; that the moral of them all has had for its
object the desire of happiness, and aversion to pain: but that
the people, and the greater part of legislators, not knowing the
route to be pursued, have formed false, and therefore discordant,
ideas of virtue and vice, of good and evil, that is to say, of what
renders man happy or miserable; that in every instance, the
means and the causes of propagating and establishing systems
15




170                    THE RUINS.
have exhibited the same scenes of passion and the same events
everywhere disputes about words, pretexts for zeal, revolutions
and wars excited by the ambition of princes, the knavery of
apostles, the credulity of proselytes, the ignorance of the vulgar, the exclusive cupidity and intolerant arrogance of all: in
fine, you will see that the whole history of the spirit of religion
is only the history of the errors of the human mind, which,
placed in a world that it does not comprehend, endeavors nevertheless to solve the enigma; and which, beholding with astonishment this mysterious and visible prodigy, imagines causes,
supposes reasons, builds systems; then, finding one defective,
destroys it for another not less so; hates the error that it quits,
misconceives the one it embraces, rejects the truth it is seeking,
composes chimeras of discordant beings, and always dreaming
of wisdom and happiness, wanders in the labyrinth of illusion
and of pain."
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE OBJECT OF ALL RELIGIONS IDENTICAL.
THus spoke the orator, in the name of those men who had
studied the origin and succession of religious ideas.
The theologians of various systems reasoning on this discourse; " It is an impious representation," said some, "whose
tendency is nothing less than to overturn all belief, to destroy
subordination in the minds of men, and annihilate our ministry
and power."-" It is a romance," said others, "a tissue of conjectures, composed with art, but without foundation."
The moderate and the prudent men added: " Supposing all
this to be true, why reveal these mysteries? Doubtless our
opinions are full of errors; but these errors are a necessary restraint on the multitude. The world has gone thus for two
thousand years; why change it now?"
A murmur of disapprobation, which never fails to rise at every
innovation, now began to increase, when a numerous group of




THE RUINS.                      171
the common class of people, and of untaught men of all countries and of every nation, without prophets, without doctors,
and without doctrine, advancing in the circle, drew the attention
of the whole assembly; and one of them, in the name of all,
thus addressed the legislator:" Mediator and arbiter of nations! the strange relations which
have occupied the present debate were unknown to us until this
day; our understanding, confounded and amazed at so many
things, some of them learned, others absurd, and all incomprehensible, remains in uncertainty and doubt. One only reflection has struck us: on reviewing so many prodigious facts, so
many contradictory assertions, we ask ourselves what are all
these discussions to us? What need have we to know what
happened five or six thousand years ago, in countries we never
heard of, and among- men who will ever be unknown to us?
True or false, what interest have we in knowing whether the
world has existed six thousand, or twenty thousand years?
whether it was made of nothing, or of something? by itself ot
by a maker, who in his turn would require another maker?
What! we are not sure of what happens near us, and we shall
answer for what happens in the sun, in the moon, or in imaginary regions of space? We have forgotten our own infancy,
and shall we know the infancy of the world? and who will attest what no one has seen? who will certify what no man comprehends?
"Besides, what addition or diminution will it make to our
existence to say yes or no to all these chimeras?  Hitherto neither we nor our forefathers have had the least notion of them,
and we do not perceive that we have had on this account either
more or less of the sun, more or less subsistence, more or less
of good or of evil.
" If the knowledge of these things is so necessary, why have
we lived as well without it as those who have taken so much
trouble about it? If this knowledge is superfluous, why should
we burden ourselves with it to-day?"
Then addressing himself to the doctors ad theologians,
"What!" said he, " is it necessary that we, poor and ignorant
men, whose every moment is scarcely sufficient for the cares o1
life and the labors of which you take the profit-is it necessary
for us to learn the numberless histories that you have related,




172                   THE RUINS.
o read the quantity of books that you have cited, and to study
he various languages in which they are composed? A thousand years of life would not suffice    "
" It is net necessary," replied the doctors, " that you should
acquire all this science: we have it for you-"
1" But even you," replied the simple men, "with all your
science, you can not agree; of what advantage, then, is your
science?
"' Besides, how can you answer for us? If the faith of one
man is applicable to many, what need have even you to believe?
Your fathers may have believed for you, and this would be reasonable, since they have seen for you.
" Farther, what is believing, if belief influences no action?
And what action is influenced by believing, for instance, that the
world is or is not eternal?"
" The latter would be offensive to God," said the doctors.
"How prove you that?" replied the simple men.
"In our books," answered the doctors.
"; We do not understand them," returned the simple men.
"We understand them for you," said the doctors.
"' That is the difficulty," replied the simple men. "By what
right do you constitute yourselves mediators between God and
us?"
"1By his orders," said the doctors.'"Where is the proof of these orders?" said the simple
men.
1" In our books," said the doctors.
1" We understand them not," said the simple men; "and how
came this just God to give you this privilege over us?  Why
should this common Father oblige us to believe on a less degree
of evidence than you?  Ile has spoken to you, be it so; he is
infallible, and deceives you not: but it is you who speak to us.
And who shall assure us that you are not in error yourselves,
or that you will not lead us into error? And if we should be
deceived, how will that just God save us contrary to law, or
condemn us on a law which we have not known?"
" He has given you the natural law," said the doctors.
"And what is the natural law?" replied the simple men. "If.hat law suffices, why has he given any other? If it is not sufficient, why did he make it imperfect?'




THE RUINS.                       173
"His judgments are mysteries," said the doctors, " and his
justice is not like that of men."
"If his justice," replied the simple men, "is not like ours, by
what rule are we to judge of it? and moreover, why all these
laws, and what is the object proposed by them?"
" To render you more happy," replied a doctor, 1" by rendering you better and more virtuous: it is to teach man to enjoy
his benefits, and not injure each other, that God has manifested
himself by so many oracles and prodigies."
" In that case," said the simple men, " there is no necessity
for so many studies, nor of such a variety of arguments, only tell
us which is the religion that best answers the end which they
all propose."
Immediately, on this, every group extolling its own morality
above that of all others, there arose among the different sects a
new and most violent dispute.
" It is we," said the Mussulmans, "who possess the most excellent morals, who teach all the virtues useful to men and
agreeable to God. We profess justice, disinterestedness, resignation to providence, charity to our brethren, alms-giving, and
devotion; we torment not the soul with superstitious fears; we
live without alarm, and die without remorse."
"How dare you speak of morals," answered the Christian
priests, " you, whose chief lived in licentiousness and preached
impurity? you, whose first precept is homicide and war? For
this we appeal to experience: since twelve hundred years your
fanatical zeal has not ceased to spread commotion and carnage
among the nations; and if Asia, once so flourishing, is now languishing in barbarism and depopulation, it is in your doctrine
that we find the cause-in that doctrine, the enemy of all instruction, which sanctifies ignorance, which consecrates the
most absolute despotism in the governors, exacts the most blind
and passive obedience from the people, has stupefied the faculties
of man, and brutalized the nations.
" It is not so with our sublime and celestial morals. It was
they which raised the world from its primitive barbarity, from
the senseless and cruel superstitions of idolatry, from human
sacrifices,* from the shameful orgies of pagan mysteries. It
~ See the frigid declamation of Eusebius (Prcep. Evang., lib. 1, p.11),
who pretends that, since the coming of Christ, there have neither been
15*




174                     tilt  RUINS.
was they that purified manners, proscribed incest and adultery~
polished savage nations, banished slavery, and introduced new
and unknown virtues, charity for men, their equality before God,
forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries, the restraint of all the
passions, the contempt of worldly greatness, a life completely
spiritual and completely holy."
" We admire," said the Mussulmans, "the ease with which
you reconcile that evangelical meekness, of which you are so
ostentatious, with the injuries and outrages with which you are
constantly galling your neighbors.  5When you criminate so
severely the great man whom we revere, we might fairly retort
on the conduct of him whom you adore; but we scorn such
advantages, and confining ourselves to the real object in question, we maintain that the morals of your gospel have by no
means that perfection which you ascribe to them. It is not
true that they have introduced into the world new and unknown
virtues: for example, the equality of men before God, that fraternity and that benevolence which follow from it, were formal
doctrines of the sect of the Hermetics or Samaneans, from whom
you descend. As to the forgiveness of injuries, the pagans
themselves had taught it; but in the extent you give it, far from
being a virtue, it becomes an immorality, a vice. Your so
much boasted precept of holding out one cheek after the other,
is not only contrary to every sentiment of man, but is opposed
to all ideas of justice; it emboldens the wicked by impunity,
debases the virtuous by servility, delivers up the world to despotism and tyranny, and dissolves all society: such is the true
spirit of your doctrines. Your gospels, in their precepts and
wars, nor tyrants, nor cannibals, nor sodomites, nor persons committing
incest, nor savages devouring their parents, etc. When we read these
early doctors of the church, we are astonished at their insincerity or infatuation. A eurious work would be a small volume of their most re.
markable passages, to expose their folly. The truth is, that Christianity
has invented nothing new in morals, and all its merit consists in putting
into practice principles which owed their success to circumstances of the
tilnes; that is to say, the arrogant and cruel despotism of the Romans
in the various branches, military, judiciary, and administrative-having
exhausted the patience of nations-produced, among the inferior or pop.,tlar classes, a movement of reaction absolutely similar to that which,
since twenty-five years, exists in Europe among the people against the
oppression of the sacerdotal and feudal castes.




THE RUINS.                      175
their parables, never represent God but as a despot without any
rules of equity; a partial father treating a debauched and prodigal son with more favor than his other respectful and virtuous
children; a capricious master, who gives the same wages to
workmen who had wrought but one hour, as to those who had
labored through the whole day; one who prefers the last-comers
to the first. The moral is everywhere misanthropic and antisocial; it disgusts men with life and with society, and tends only
to encourage hermitism and celibacy.," As to the manner in which you have practised these morals,
we appeal in our turn to the testimony of facts. We ask whether it is this evangelical meekness which has excited your interminable wars of sects, your atrocious persecutions of pretended
heretics, your crusades against Arianism, Manicheism, Protestantism-without speaking of your crusades against us, and of
those sacrilegious associations, still subsisting, of men who take
an oath to continue them?* We ask you whether it be gospel charity which has made you exterminate whole nations in
America, and annihilate the empires of Mexico and Peru?which makes you continue to dispeople Africa, and sell its inhabitants like cattle, notwithstanding your abolition of slavery?
-which makes you ravage India and usurp its dominions?and whether it be the same charity which, for three centuries
past, has led you to havoc the habitations of the people of three
continents, of whom the most prudent, the Chinese and Japanese, were constrained to drive you off, that they might escape
your chains and recover their internal peace?"
Here the brahmins, the rabbins, the bonzes, the chamans, the
priests of the Molucca islands and of the coast of Guinea, loading the Christian doctors with reproaches —' Yes!" cried they,
"these men are robbers and hypocrites, who preach simplicity
to surprise confidence; humility, to enslave with more ease;
poverty, to appropriate all riches to themselves. They promise
another world, the better to usurp the present; and while they
speak to you of tolerance and charity, they burn, in the name
of God, the men who do not worship him in their manner."
"Lying priests!" retorted the missionaries, " it is you who
abuse the credulity of ignorant nations to subjugate them. It
* The oath taken by the knights of Malta was, to kill or make prisoners the Mahometans, for the glory of God.




176                     THE  RUINS.
is you who have made of your ministry an art of cheating and
imposture; you have converted religion into a traffic of cupidity
and avarice. You pretend to hold communication with spirits,
and they give for oracles nothing but your wills.  You feign to
read the stars, and destiny decrees only your desires. You
cause idols to speak, and the gods are but the instruments of
your passions. You have invented sacrifices and libations, to
collect for your own profit the milk of flocks and the flesh and
fat of victims; and under the cloak of piety you devour the
offerings of the gods, who can not eat, and the substance of the
people who labor."
", And you," replied the brahmins, the bonzes, the chamans,
"sell to the credulous living your vain prayers for the souls of
the dead.  With your indulgences and absolutions, you have
usurped the power of God himself; and making a traffic of his
favors and pardons, you have put heaven at auction, and, by
your system of expiations, you have formed a tariff of crimes*
which has perverted all consciences."
"Add to this," said the Imams, "that these men have invented the most insidious of allsystems of wickedness-the absurd
and impious obligation of recounting to them the most intimate
secrets of actions and of thoughts (confession); so that their
insolent curiosity has carried their inquisition even into the
sanctuary of the marriage-bed,f and the inviolable recesses of
the heart."
As long as it shall be possible to obtain purification from crimes and
exemption from punishment by means of money, or other frivolous practices; as long as kings and lords shall suppose that building temples or
instituting foundations, will absolve them from the guilt of oppression
and homicide; as long as individuals shall imagine that they may rob
and cheat, provided they fast during Lent, go to confession, and receive
extreme unction,-it is impossible there should exist either a public or
private morality, or salutary practical legislation. But to see the effects
of these doctrines, it is only necessary to peruse the History of the Temrn.
poral Power of the Popes, 4th edition.
t Confession is a very ancient invention of the priests, who did not fail
to avail themselves of that means of governing. It was practised in the
Egyptian, Greek, Phrygian, Persian mysteries, etc. Plutarch has transmitted us the remarkable answer of a Spartan whom a priest wanted to
confess. " Is it to you, or to God, I am to confess?"-" To God," an.
swered the priest.-" In that case," replied the Spartan, " man, begone!"
(Remarkable sayings of the Lacedemonians.) The first Christians con



THE  RUINS.                        177
Thus by mutual reproaches the doctors of the different sects
began to reveal all the crimes of their ministry-all the vices of
their craft; and it was found that, among all nations, the spirit
of the priesthood, their system of conduct, their actions, their
morals, were absolutely the same:That they had everywhere formed secret associations and
corporations at enmity with the rest of society;*
fessed their faults publicly, like the Essenians; afterward, priests began
to be established, with power of absolution from the sin of idolatry. In
the time of Theodosius, a woman having publicly confessed an intrigue
with a deacon, Bishop Necterius, and his successor Chrysostom, granted
communion without confession. It was not until the seventh century,
that the abbots of convents exacted from monks and nuns confession
twice a year; and it was at a still later period that bishops of Rome
generalized it. As to the Mussulmans, who abhor this practice e'nd
who do not allow women a moral character, and scarcely a soul, they
can not conceive how an honest man can listen to the recital of the most
secret actions and.thoughts of a girl or a woman. May not we French,
among whom our education and sentiments render many women superior
to the men, ask, with astonishment, how can an honest woman consent
to reveal them to the impertinent curiosity of a monk or a priest?
* That we may understand the general feelings of priests respecting
the rest of mankind, whom they always call by the name of the people,
let us hear one of the doctors of the church. " The people," says bishop
Synnesius (in Calvit., p. 515), " are desirous to be deceived; there is no
acting otherwise with them." Such were always the principles of the
ancient priests of Egypt; and for this reason they shut themselves up
in their temples, and there composed their mysteries, out of the reach
of the eye of the people.-And, forgetting what he had just said, he
adds: " For, had the people been in the secret, they might have been
offended at the deception. In the meantime, how is it possible to conduct one's self otherwise with the people, so long as they are the peo.
ple? For my own part, to myself I shall always be a philosopher, but
in dealing with the mass of mankind, I shall be a priest."
" A little jargon," says Gregory of Nazianzus to St. Jerome (Hieron
ad Nep.), "is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less
they comprehend, the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors
have often said, not what they thought, but what circumstances and ne.
cessity dictated."
" We endeavor," says Sanconiathon, " to excite admiration by means
of the marvellous.'? (Prcep. Ev., lib. iII.) Such was the conduct of al
the priests of antiquity, and is still that of the brahmins and lamas, who
are the exact counterpart of the Egyptian priests. To justify this system of imposition and falsehood, we are told that it would be dangerous
to enlighten the people, because they would abuse their information, Is




8  THE  RUINS.
That they had everywhere attributed to themselves prerogatives and immunities, by means of which they lived exempt from
the burdens of other classes;
That they everywhere avoided the toils of the laborer, the
dangers of the soldier, and the disappointments of the merchant;
That they lived everywhere in celibacy, to shun even the
cares of a family;
That, under the cloak of poverty, they possessed everywhere
the secret of acquiring wealth and all sorts of enjoyments;
That, under the name of mendicity, they raised taxes to a
greater amount than princes;
That, in the form of gifts and offerings, they had established
fixed and certain revenues exempt from charges;
That, under pretence of retirement and devotion, they lived
in idleness and licentiousness;
That they had made a virtue of alms-giving, to live quietly on
the labors of others;
That they had invented the ceremonies of worship, as a means
of attracting the reverence of the people, while they were playing the parts of gods of whom they styled themselves the interpreters and mediators, to assume all their powers; that, with
this design, they had, according to the degree of ignorance or
information of their people, assumed by turns the character of
astrologers, drawers of horoscopes, fortune-tellers, magicians,
necromancers,* quacks, physicians, courtiers, confessors of
it meant that instruction and deceit are synonymous? No; but as the
people are unfortunate by the stupidity, ignorance, and avarice, of those
who lead and instruct them, the latter want them to be hoodwinked.
Doubtless it would be dangerous to make a direct attack on the errone.
ous belief of a nation; but there is a philanthropic and medical art of
preparing men's eyes for the light, as well as their arms for liberty. If
ever a corporation is instituted in this sense, it will astonish the world
by its success.
* What is a magician, in the sense in which people understand the
word? A man who by words and gestures pretends to act on supernat.
ural beings, and compel them to descend at his call and obey his orders.
Such was the conduct of the ancient priests, and such is still that of all
priests in idolatrous nations, for which reason we have given them the
denomination of magicians. Now, when a Christian priest pretends to
make God descend from heaven, to fix him to a morsel of leaven, and to
render, by means of this talisrlan, souls pure and in a state of grace




THE  RUINS.                        179
princes-always aiming at the great object to govern for their
own advantage;
That sometimes they had exalted the power of kings and
consecrated their persons, to monopolize their favors or participate in the authority;
That sometimes they had preached up the murder of tyrants
(reserving it td' themselves to define tyranny), to avenge themselves of their contempt or their disobedience;
And, that they always stigmatized with impiety whatever
crossed their interests; that they hindered all public instruction,
to exercise the monopoly of science; that, finally, in all times
and in all places, they had found the secret of living in peace in
the midst of the anarchy-they created; in safety, under the despotism that they favored; in indolence, amid the industry they
preached! and in abundance, while surrounded with scarcity!
-and all this by carrying on the singular trade of selling words
and gestures to credulous people, who purchase themn as commodities of the greatest value.*
Then the different nations, in a transport of fury, were going
to tear in pieces the men who had thus abused them; but the
what is all this but a trick of magic? And where is the difference between him and a chaman of Tartary, who invokes the genii, or an Indian
brahmin, who makes his Vichenou descend in a vessel of water to drive
away evil spirits? But such is the magic of custom and education, that
we look upon as simple and reasonable in ourselves. what appears extravagant and absurd in others.
* A curious work would be the comparative history of the pope's ag
nuses and the pastils of the grand lama! It would be worth while to
extend this idea to religious ceremonies in general, and to confront, column by column, the analogous or contrasting points of faith and superstitious practices in all nations. There is one more, species of superstition which it would be equally salutary to cure: blind veneration for the
great; and for this purpose it would be only necessary to write a minute
detail of the private life of those who govern the world, princes, courtiers, and ministers. No work would be more philosophical than this;
and accordingly we have seen what a general outcry was excited, when
the Anecdotes of the Court of Berlin first appeared. What would be the
alarm, were the public acquainted with the private history of other
courts? Did the people know all the crimes and all the baseness of this
species of idol, they would no longer covet their specious pleasures, of
which the plausible and hollow appearance disturbs their peace, and hin.
ders them from enjoying the much more solid happiness of their own
condition.




180                   THE RUINS.
legislator, arresting this movement of violence, addressed the
chiefs and doctors: "WVhat!" said he "instructors of nations,
is it thus you have deceived them?"
And the terrified priests replied: " O legislator! we are men.
The people are so superstitious! they have themselves encouraged these errors."
And the kings said: "O legislator! the people are so servile
and so ignorant! they prostrated themselves before the yoke,
which we scarcely dared to show them."
Then the legislator, turning to the people —" People!" said
he, " remember what you have just heard: they are two indelible truths. Yes, you are yourselves the authors of the evils
you lament; it is you that encourage tyrants by a base adulation of their power, by an imprudent admiration of their false
beneficence, by servility in obedience, by licentiousness in liberty, and by a credulous reception of every imposition. On
whom shall you wreak vengeance for the faults committed by
your own ignorance and cupidity?"
And the people, struck with confusion, remained in mournful
silence.
CHAPTER XXIV.
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF CONTRADICTIONS.
THE legislator then resumed his discourse: "0, nations!"
said he, "we have heard the discussion of your opinions; and
the different sentiments which divide you have given rise to
many reflections, and furnished several questions which we shall
propose to you to solve.
" First, considering the diversity and opposition of the creeds
to which you are attached, we ask on what motives you found
your persuasion? Is it from a deliberate choice that you follow
the standard of one prophet rather than another? Before adopting this doctrine rather than that, did you first compare? did
you maturely examine them? or have you received them only
from the chance of birth-from the empire of education and
habit? Are you not born Christians on the banks of the Tiber




THE RUINS.                      181
Mussulmans on those of the Euphrates, Idolaters on the Indus,
just as you are born fair in cold climates, and sable under the
scorching sun of Africa? And if your opinions are the effect
of your fortuitous position on the earth, of consanguinity, of
imitation, how is it that such a hazard should be a ground of
conviction, an argument of truth?
" Secondly, when we reflect on the mutual proscriptions and
arbitrary intolerance of your pretensions, we are frightened a
the consequences that flow from your own principles. Nations!
who reciprocally devote each other to the bolts of heavenly
wrath, suppose that the universal Being whom you revere
should this moment descend from heaven on this multitude,
and, clothed with all his power, should sit on this throne to
judge you: suppose he should say to you:'Mortals! it is
your own justice that I am going to exercise upon you. Yes,
of all the religious systems that divide you, one alone shall this
day be preferred; all the others, all this multitude of standards,
of nations, of prophets, shall be condemned to eternal destruction. This is not enough: among the particular sects of the
chosen system, one only can be favored, and all the others must
be condemned. Neither is this enough: from this little remnant of a group, I must exclude all those who have not fulfilled
the conditions enjoined by its precepts. O men! to what a
small number of elect have you limited your race! To what a
penury of beneficence do you reduce the immensity of my
goodness! To what a solitude of admirers do you condemn my
greatness and my glory!'
1"But," said the legislator, rising, "no matter; you have
willed it so. Nations! here is an urn in which all your names
are placed. One only is a prize: approach and draw this tremendous lottery." And the nations, seized with terror, cried:
"No, no; we are all brothers, all equal: we can not condemn
each other."
Then said the legislator, resuming his seat: "0 men! who
dispute on so many subjects, lend an attentive ear to one problem which you exhibit, and which you ought to decide yourselves." And the people, giving great attention, he lifted an
arm toward heaven, and, pointing to the sun, said: "Nations,
does that sun which enlightens you appear square or triangular?" —" No," answered they with one voice; " it is round."
16




182                   THE RUINS.
Then taking the golden balance that was on the altar: " This
gold that you handle every day, is it heavier than the same volume of copper?"-" Yes," answered all the people; " gold is
heavier than copper."
Then taking the sword:'Is this iron," said the legislator,
"softer than lead?" —" No," said the people.
"Is sugar sweet, and gall bitter?7"-" Yes."
"Do you love pleasure, and hate pain?"-," Yes."
"Thus, then, you are agreed in these points and many others
of the same nature.
"Now, tell us, is there a cavern in the centre of the earth, or
inhabitants in the moon?"
This question occasioned a universal murmur. Every one
answered differently-some yes, others no: one said it was
probable; another said it was an idle, ridiculous question; some,
that it was worth knowing: and the discord was universal.
After some time the legislator, having obtained silence, said:' Explain to us, 0 nations, this problem. We have put to you
several questions which you have answered with one voice,
without distinction of race or sect-white- men, black men, followers of Mahomet and of Moses, worshippers of Boudha and
of Jesus: all have returned the same answer. We then proposed another question, and you are all at variance! Why this
unanimity in one case, and this discordance in the other?"
And the group of simple men and savages answered and said:
"The reason of this is evident. In the first case, we see and
feel the objects, and we speak froth sensation; in the second,
they are beyond the reach of our senses-we speak of them only
from conjecture."
1" You have resolved the problem," said the legislator; "and
your own consent has established this first truth:"That whenever objects can be examined and judged of by
your senses, you are agreed in opinion;
"' And, that you only differ when the objects are absent and
beyond your reach.
"From this first truth flows another equally dlear and worthy
of notice. Since you agree on things which you know with
certainty, it follows that you disagree only on those which you
know not with certainty, and about which you are not surethat is to sayi you dispute, you quarrel, you fight, for that




THE RUINS.                       183
which is uncertain, that of which you doubt. O men! is not
this folly?,, Is it not, then, demonstrated, that truth is not the object of
yourl contests? that it is not her cause which you defend, but
that of your affections and of your prejudices? that it is not
the object, as it really is in itself, that you would verify, but the
object as you would have it-th1at is to say, it is not the evidence
of the thing that you would enforce, but your own personal
opinion, your particular manner of seeing and judging?  It is
a power that you wish to exercise, an interest that you wish to
satisfy, a prerogative that you arrogate to yourselves: it is a
contest of vanity. Now, as each of you, on comparing himself
to every other, finds himself his equal and his fellow, he resists
by a feeling of the same right; and your disputes, your combats, your intolerance, are the effect of this fight which you
deny each other, and of the intimate conviction of your equality.
"Now, the only means of establishing harmony is to return
to nature, and take for a guide and regulator the order of things
which she has founded; and then your accord will prove this
other truth:"' That real beings have in themselves an identical, constant,
and uniform mode of existence; and, that there is in your organs a like mode of being affected by them.
1" But, at the same time, by reason of the mobility of these
organs as subject to your will, you may conceive different affections, and find yourselves in different relations with the same
objects; so that you are to them like a mirror, capable of reflecting them truly as they are, or of distorting and disfiguring them.
" Hence it follows that, whenever you perceive objects as
they are, you agree among yourselves and with the objects;
and the similitude between your sensations, and their manner of
existence, is what constitutes their truth with respect to you;
"And, on the contrary, whenever you differ in your opinion,
your disagreement is a proof that you do not represent them
such as they are, that you change them.
" Hence, also, it follows, that the causes of your disagreement exist not in the objects themselves, but in your minds, in
your manner of perceiving or judging.
" To establish, therefore, a uniformity of opinion, it is necessary first to establish the certainty, completely verified, that the




184                    TH1E RUINS.
portraits which the mind forms are perfectly like the originals
that it reflects the objects correctly as they exist. Now, this
result can not be obtained but in those cases where the objects
can be brought to the test, and submitted to the examination of
the senses. Everything which can not be brought to this trial
is, for that reason alone, impossible to be determined; there exists no rule, no term of comparison, no means of certainty, re.
specting it.
" From this we conclude, that, to live in harmony and peace,
we must agree never to decide on such subjects, and to attach
to them no importance; in a word, we must trace a line of
distinction between those that are capable of verification, and
those that are not, and separate, by an inviolable barrier, the
world of fantastical beings from the world of realities —that is
to say, all civil effect must be taken away from theological and
religious opinions.
" This, O people! is the object proposed by a great nation
freed from her fetters and her prejudices. This is the work
which, under her eye, and by her orders, we had undertaken
when your kings and your priests came to interrupt it.-O kings
and priests! you may suspend, yet for a while, the solemn pub
lication of the laws of nature; but it is no longer in your power
to annihilate or to subvert them."
A general shout then arose from every part of the assembly;
and the nations universally, and with one voice, testified their
assent to the proposals of the legislator. "1 Resume," said they,
"your holy and sublime labors, and bring them to perfection!
Investigate the laws which nature, for our guidance, has implanted in our breasts, and collect from them an authentic and
immutable code; nor let this code be any longer for one family
only, but for us all without exception! Be the legislator of the
whole human race, as you shall be the interpreter of nature
herself. Show us the line of partition between the world of
chimeras and that of realities; and teach us, after so many religions of error and delusion, the religion of evidence and truth!"
Then, the legislator having resumed his inquiry into the
physical and constituent attributes of man, and examined the
motives and affections which govern him in his individual and
social state, unfolded in these words the laws on which nature
herself has founded his happiness.




THE LAW OF NATURE.
CHAPTER I.
THE LAW OF NATURE.
Question. WHAT is the law of nature?
Answer. It is the constant and regular order of facts, by which
God governs the universe; an order which his wisdom presents
to the senses and to the reason of men, as an equal and common
rule for their actions, to guide them, without distinction of
country or of sect, toward perfection and happiness.
Q. Give a clear definition of the word law.
A. The word law, taken literally, signifies lecture,* because
originally ordinances and regulations were the lectures, preferably to all others, made to the people, in order that they might
observe them, and not incur the penalties attached to the infraction of them; whence follows the original custom explaining the
true idea.
The definition of law is, "An order or prohibition to act, with
the express clause of a penalty attached to the infraction, or of
a recompense attached to the observance of that order."
Q. Do such orders exist in nature?
A. Yes.
Q. What does the word nature signify?
A. The word nature bears three different senses:1st. It signifies the universe, the material world: in this first
sense we say the beauty of nature, the richness of nature, that
* From the Latin word lex, lettio. Alcoran likewise signifies lecture,
and is only a literal translation of the word law.
16*'




z86             THE LAW OF NATURE.
is to say, the objects in the heavens and on the earth exposed
to our sight;
2dly. It signifies the power that animates, that moves the universe, considering it as a distinct being, such as the soul is to
the body: in this second sense we say, " The intentions of nature, the incomprehensible secrets of nature;"
3dly. It signifies the partial operations of that power on each
being, or on- each class of beings; and in this third sense we
say,'* The nature of man is an enigma; every being acts according to its nature."
Wherefore, as the actions of each being, or each species of
beings, are subjected to constant and general rules, which can
not be infringed without interrupting and troubling the general
or particular order, those rules of action and of motion are called
natural laws, or laws of nature.
Q. Give ile examples of those laws.
A. It is a law of nature that the sun illuminates successively
the surface of the terrestrial globe; that its presence causes both
light and heat; that heat, acting upon water, produces vapors;
that those vapors, rising in clouds into the regions of the air,
dissolve into rain or snow, and renew incessantly the waters of
fountains and of rivers.
It is a law of nature that water flows downward; that it endeavors to find its level; that it is heavier than air; that all
bodies tend toward the earth; that flame ascends toward the
heavens; that it disorganizes vegetables and animals; that air
is necessary to the life of certain animals; that, in certain circumstances, water suffocates and kills them; that certain juices
of plants, certain minerals, attack their organs, and destroy their
life, and so on in a multitude of other instances.
Wherefore, as all those and similar facts are immutable, constant, and regular, so many real orders result from them for man
to conform himself to, with the express clause of punishment
attending the infraction of them, or of welfare attending their
observance.  So that, if man pretends to see clear in darknessif he goes in contradiction to the course of the seasons, or the
action of the elements-if he pretends to remain under water
without being drowned, to touch fire without burning himself,
to deprive himself of air without being suffocated, to swallow
poison without destroying himself-he receives from each of




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                    187
those infractions of the laws of nature a corporeal punishment
proportionate to his fault; but if, on the contrary, he observes
and practises each of those laws according to the regular and
exact relations they have to him, he preserves his existence, and
renders it as happy as it can be: and as the only and common
end of all those laws, considered relatively to mankind, is to preserve and render them happy, it has been agreed upon to reduce
the idea to one simple expression, and to call them collectively
the law of nature.
C-HAPTER II.
CHARACTERS OF THE LAW OF NATURE.
Q. WHAT are the characters of the law of nature?
A. There can be assigned ten principal ones.
Q. Which is the first?
A. To be inherent to the existence of things, and ccnsequently primitive and anterior to every other law; so that all
those which man has received are only imitations of it, and their
perfection is ascertained by the resemblance they bear to this
primordial model.
Q. Which is the second?
A. To be derived immediately from God, and presented by
him to each man; whereas all other laws are presented to us by
men, who may be either deceived or deceivers.
Q. Which is the third'?
A. To be common to all times, and to all countries, that is to
say, one and universal.
Q. Is no other law universal?
A.' No; for no other is agreeable or applicable to all the people of the earth: they are all local and accidental, originating
from circumstances of places and of persons; so that, if such a
man had not existed, or such an event happened, such a lavw
would never have been enacted.
Q. Which is the fourth character?.4. To be uniform and invariable.




188            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
Q. Is no other law uniform and invariable?
A. No; for what is good and virtue according to one, is evil
and vice according to another; and what one and the same law
approves of at one time, it often condemns at another.
Q. Which is the fifth character?
A. To be evident and palpable, because it consists entirely of
facts incessantly present to the senses, and to demonstration.
Q. Are not other laws evident?
A. No; for they are founded on past and doubtful facts, on
equivocal and suspicious testimonies, and on proofs inaccessible
to the senses.
Q. Which is the sixth character?
A. To be reasonable, because its precepts and entire doctrine are conformable to reason, and to the human understanding.
Q. Is no other law reasonable?
A. No; for all are in contradiction to the reason and the understanding of men, and tyrannically impose on him a blind and
impracticable belief.
Q. Which is the seventh character?
A. To be just, because in that law, the penalties are propdrtionate to the infractions.
Q. Are not other laws just?
A. No; for they often exceed bounds, either in rewarding
deserts, or in punishing delinquencies, and consider as meritorious or criminal, null or indifferent actions.
Q. Which is the eighth character?
A. To be pacific and tolerant, because in the law of nature,
all men being brothers and equal in rights, it recommends to
them only peace and toleration, even for errors.
Q. Are not other laws pacific?
A.. No; for all preach dissension, discord, and war, and
divide mankind by exclusive pretensions of truth and domination.
Q. Which is the ninth character?
A. To be equally beneficent to all men, in teaching them the
true means of becoming better and happier.
Q. Are not other laws beneficent likewise?
A. No; for none of them teach the real means of attaining
happiness; all are confined to pernicious or futile practices; and




THE  LAWV  OF NATURE.                   189
this is evident from facts, since after so many laws, so many reigions, so many legislators and prophets, men are still as unhappy and as ignorant, as they were six thousand years ago.
Q. Which is the last character of the law of nature?
A. That it is alone sufficient to render men happier and better, because it comprises all that is good and useful in other
laws, either civil or religious, that is to say, it constitutes essentially the moral part of them; so that, if other laws were divested of it, they would be reduced to chimerical and imaginary
opinions, devoid of any practical utility.
Q. Recapitulate all those characters.
A. We have said that the law of nature is:
1. Primitive;               6. Reasonable;
2. Immediate;               7. Just;
3. Universal;               8. Pacific;
4. Invariable;              9. Beneficent; and
5. Evident;                10. Alone sufficient.
And such is the power of all these attributes of perfection and
truth that, when in their disputes the theologians can agree upon
no article of belief, they recur to the law of nature, the neglect
of which (say they) forced God to send from time to time prophets
to proclaim new laws; as if God enacted-laws for particular
circumstances, as men do, especially when the first subsists in
such force, that we may assert it to have been at all times and
in all countries the rule of conscience for every man of sense or
understanding.
Q. If, as you say, it emanates immediately from God, does it
teach his existence?
A. Yes, most positively; for, to any man whatever, who observes with reflection the-astonishing spectacle of the universe,
the more he meditates on the properties and attributes of each
being, oil the admirable order and harmony of their motions,
the more it is demonstrated that there exists a supreme agent,
a universal and identic mover, designated by the appellation of
God; and so true it is that the law of nature suffices to elevate
him to the knowledge of God, that all which men have pretended to know by supernatural means has constantly turned out
ridiculous and absurd, and that they have ever been obliged to
recur to the immutable conceptions of natural reason.




190            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
Q. Then it is not true that the followers of the law of natare
are atheists?
A. No, it is not true; on the contrary, they entertain stronger
and nobler ideas of the Divinity than most other men; for they
do not sully him with the foul ingredients of all the weaknesses
and passions entailed on humanity.
Q. What worship do they pay to him?
A. Worship wholly of action: the practice and observance
of all the rules which the supreme wisdom has imposed on the
motion of each being; eternal and unalterable rules, by which
it maintains the order and harmony of the universe, and which,
in their relations to man, constitute the law of nature.
Q. WVas the law of nature known before this period?
A. It has been at all times spoken of: most legislators pretend
to adopt it as the basis of their laws; but they only quote some
of its precepts, and have had only vague ideas of its totality.
Q. Why?
A. Because, though simple in its basis, it forms in its developments and consequences a complicated whole, which requires
an extensive knowledge of facts, joined to all the sagacity of
reasoning.
Q. Does not instinct alone teach the law of nature?
A. No; for by instinct is meant nothing more than that blind
sentiment by which we are actuated indiscriminately toward everything that flatters the senses.
Q. Why, then, is it said that the law of nature is engraved in
the hearts of all men?
A. It is said for two reasons: first, because it has been remarked that there are acts and sentiments common to all
mern, and this proceeds from their common organization; secondly, because the first philosophers believed that men were
born with ideas already formed, which is now demonstrated to
be erroneous.
Q. Philosophers, then, are fallible?
A. Yes, sometimes.
Q. Why so?
A. First, because they are men; secondly, because the ignorant call all those who reason right or wrong philosophers;
thirdly, because those who reason on many subjects, and who
are the first to reason on them, are liable to be deceived.




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                    191
Q. If the law of nature be not written, must it not become
arbitrary and ideal?
A. No; because it consists entirely in facts, the demonstration of which can be incessantly renewed to the senses, and
constitues a science as accurate and as precise as geometry and
mathematics; and it is because the law of nature forms an exact
science, that men, born ignorant, and living inattentive and heed.
less, have had hitherto only a superficial knowledge of it.
CHAPTER III.
PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF NATURE WITH RELATION TO MAN.
Q. EXPLAIN the principles of the law of nature with relation
to man.
A. They are simple; all of them are comprised in one fundamental and single precept.
Q. What is that precept?
A. It is self-preservation.
Q. Is not happiness also a precept of the law of nature?
A. Yes; but as happiness is an accidental state, resulting
only from the development of man's faculties and his social system, it is not the immediate and direct object of nature; it is, in
some measure, a superfluity annexed to the necessary and fundamental object of preservation.
Q. How does nature order man to preserve himself?
A. By two powerful and involuntary sensations, which it has
attached, as two guides, two guardian geniuses, to all his actions: the one a sensation of pain, by which it admonishes him
of, and deters him from, everything that tends to destroy him;
the other a sensation of pleasure, by which it attracts and carries him toward everything that tends to his preservation and the
development of his existence.
Q. Pleasure, therefore, is not an evil, a sin, as casuists pretend?
A. No, only inasmuch as it tends to destroy life and health




19O2            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
which, by the avowal of those same casuists, we derive from Goa
himself.
Q. Is pleasure the principal object of our existence, as some
philosophers have asserted?
A. No, not more than pain; pleasure is an incitement to live,
as pain is a repulsion from death.
Q. How do you prove this assertion?
A. By two palpable facts: one, that pleasure, when taken
immoderately, leads to destruction; for instance, a man who
abuses the pleasure of eating or drinking, attacks his health,
and injures his life. The other, that pain sometimes leads
to self-preservation; for instance, a man who suffers a mortified member to be cut off, endures pain in order not to perish
totally.
Q. But does not even this prove that our sensations can deceive us respecting the end of our preservation?
A. Yes; they can momentarily.
Q. How do our sensations deceive us?
A. In two ways: by ignorance, and by passion.
Q. When do they deceive us by ignorance?
A. When we act without knowing the action and effect of
objects on our senses; for example, when a man touches nettles
without knowing their stinging quality, or when he swallows
opium without knowing its soporiferous effects.
Q. When do they deceive us by passion?
A. When, conscious of the pernicious action of objects, we
abandon ourselves, nevertheless, to the impetuosity of our desires
and appetites; for example, when a man who knows that wine
intoxicates, does nevertheless drink it to excess.
Q. What is the result?
A. It results that the ignorance in which we are born, and
the unbridled appetites to which we abandon ourselves, are contrary to our preservation, that consequently the instruction of
our minds and the moderation of our passions are two obligations, two laws, which derive immediately from the first law of
preservation.
Q. But if we are born ignorant, is not ignorance a law of nature?
A. No more than to. remain in the naked and feeble state
of infancy. Far from being a law of nature, ignorance is an




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                    193
obstacle to the practice of all its laws. It is the real original sin.
Q. Why, then, have there been moralists who have looked
upon it as a virtue and a perfection?
A. Because, from a whimsical or misanthropical disposition.
they have confounded the abuse of knowledge with knowledge
itself; as if, because men abuse the power of speech, their
tongues should be cut out; as if perfection and virtue consisted
in the nullity, and not in the development and proper employ
of our faculties.
Q. Instruction is, therefore, indispensably necessary to man's
existence?
A. Yes, so indispensable, that without it he is every instant
assailed and wounded by all that surrounds him; for, if he does
not know the effects of fire, he burns himself;*.those of water,
he drowns himself; those of opium, he poisons himself: if,
in the savage state, he does not know the wiles of animals,
and the art of seizing game, he perishes through hunger; if,
in the social state, he does not know the course of the seasons,
he can neither cultivate the ground, nor procure nourishment;
and so on of all his actions, respecting all the wants of his preservation.
Q. But can man separately by himself acquire all this knowledge necessary to his existence, and to the development of his
facultie~?
A. No, not without the assistance of his fellow-men, and by
living in society.
Q. But is not society to man a state against nature?
A. No; it is, on the contrary, a necessity, a law, that nature.
umposed on him by the very act of his organization; for, first,
nature has so constituted man, that he can not see his species
of another sex without feeling emotions and an attraction, the
consequences of which induce him to live in a family, which is
already a state of society; secondly, by endowing him with
sensibility, she organized him so that the sensations of others
reflect within him, and excite reciprocal sentiments of pleasure
and of grief, whichn are attractions, and indissoluble ties of society; thirdly and finally, the state of society, founded on the
wants of man, is only a further means of fulfilling the law of
preservation: and to pretend that this state is out of nature,
17




194             THE LAWr OF NATURE.
because it is more perfect, is the same as to say, that a bitter
and wild fruit of the forest is no longer the production of
nature, when rendered sweet and delicious by cultivation in our
gardens.
Q. Why, then, have philosophers called the savage state the
state of perfection?
A. Because, as I have told you, the vulgar have often given
the name of philosophers to whimsical geniuses, who, from moroseness, from wounded vanity, or from a disgust to the vices
of society, have conceived chimerical ideas of the savage state,
in contradiction with their own system of a perfect man.
Q. What is the true meaning of the word philosopher?
A. The word philosopher signifies a lover of wisdom:
wherefore, as wisdom consists in the practice of the laws of nature, the true philosopher is he who knows those laws extensively and accurately, and who conforms the whole tenor of his
conduct to them.
Q. What is man in the savage state?
A. A brutal, ignorant animal, a wicked and ferocious beast,
like bears and orang-outangs.
Q. Is he happy in that state?
A. No; for he only feels momentary sensations; and those
sensations are habitually of violent wants which he can not satisfy, since he is ignorant by nature, and weak by being insulated
from his species.
Q. Is he free?
A. No; he is the most abject slave that exists; for his life
depends on everything that surrounds him: he is not free to eat
when hungry, to rest when tired, to warm himself when cold;
he is every instant in danger of perishing; wherefore nature
offers but fortuitous examples of such beings; and we see that
all the efforts of the human species, since its origin, solely tend
to emerge from that violent state by the pressing necessity of
self-preservation.
Q. But does not this necessity of preservation engender in
individuals egotism, that is to say, self-love? and is not egotism
contrary to the social state?
A. No; for, if by egotism you understand a propensity to
nurt our neighbor, it is no longer self-love, but the hatred
of others. Self-love, takoen in its true sense, not only is not




THE LAW OF NATURE.                       195
contrary to society, but is its firmest support, by the necessity
we lie under of not injuring others, lest in return they should
injure us.
Thus man's preservation, and the unfolding of his faculties, directed toward this end, are the true law of nature in the production of the human being: and it is from this simple and fruitful
principle that are derived, are referred, and in its scale are
weighed, all ideas of good and evil, of vice and virtue, of just
and unjust, of truth or error, of lawful or forbidden, on which
is founded the morality of individual, or of social man.
CHAPTE R IV.
BASIS OF MORALITY; OF GOOD, OF EVIL, OF SIN, OF CRIME, OF
VICE, AND OF VIRTUE.
Q. WHAT is good according to the law of nature?
A. It is everything that tends to preserve and perfect man.
Q. What is evil?
A. It is everything that tends to man's destruction or deterioration.
Q. What is meant by physical good and evil, and by moral
good and evil?
A. By the word physical is understood whatever acts immediately on the body. Health is a physical good, and sickness a
physical evil. By moral is meant what acts by consequences,
more or less remote. Calumny is a moral evil; a fair reputation is a moral good; because both one and the other occasion
toward us, on the part of other men, dispositions and habitudes,*
which are useful or hurtful to our preservation, and which attack or favor our means of existence.
Q. Everything that tends to preserve, or to produce is therefore a good.
A. Yes; and it is for that reason that certain legislators have
* It is from this word habitudes (reiterated actions), in Latin mores,
that the word moral, and all its family, are derived.




196            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
classed among the works agreeable to the divinity, the cultivation of a field and the fecundity of a woman.
Q. Whatever tends to give death is, therefore, an evil?
A. Yes; and it is for that reason some legislators have extended the idea of evil and of sin even to the murdering of animals.
Q. The murdering of a man is, therefore, a crime in the law
of nature?
A. Yes, and the greatest that can be committed; for every
other evil can be repaired, but murder alone is irreparable.
Q. What is a sin in the law of nature?
A. It is whatever tends to trouble the order established
by nature for the preservation and perfection of man and of so
ciety.
Q. Can intention be a ment or a crime?
A. No; for it is only an idea void of reality: but it is a commencement of sin and evil, by the tendency it gives toward action.
Q. XVhat is virtue according to the law of nature?
A. It is the practice of actions useful to the individual and to
society.
Q. What is meant by the word individual?
A. It means a man considered separately from every other.
Q, What is vice according to the law of nature?
A. It is the practice of actions prejudicial to the individual
and to society.
Q, Have not virtue and vice an object purely spiritual and
abstracted from the senses?
A. No; it is always to a physical end that they finally relate,
and that end is always to destroy or preserve the body.
Q. Have vice and virtue degrees of strength and intenseness?
A. Yes; according to the importance of the faculties which
they attack, or which they favor; and according to the number of individuals in whom those faculties are favored or injured.
Q. Give me some examples.
A. The action of saving a man's life is more virtuous than
that of saving his property; the action of saving the lives of ten
men, than that of saving only the life of one; and an action use



THE LAW  OF NAT URE.                  197'ul to the whole human race is more virtuous than an action
that is only useful to one single nation.
Q. How does the law of nature prescribe the practice of good
and virtue, and forbid that of evil and vice?
A. By the very advantages resulting from  the practice of
good and virtue for the preservation of our body, and by the
losses which result to our existence from the practice of evil
and vice.
Q. Its precepts are, then, in action?
A. Yes, they are'action itself, considered in its present effec,
and in its future consequences.
Q. How do you divide the virtues?
A. We divide them into three classes:1. Individual virtues, as relative to man alone;
2. Domestic virtues, as relative to a family;
3. Social virtues, as relative to society.
CHAPTER V.
ON INDIVIDUAL VIRTUES.
Q. WHICH are the individual virtues?
A. They are five principal ones, to wit:1. Science, which comprises prudence and wisdom,
2. Temperance, comprising sobriety and chastity;
3. Courage, or strength of body and mind;
4. Activity, that is to say, love of labor and employment of
time;
5. And finally, cleanliness, or purity of body, as well in dress
as in habitation.
Q. How does the law of nature prescribe science?
A. Because the man acquainted with the causes and effects
of things attends in an extensive and sure manner to his preservation, and to the development of his faculties. Science is to
him the eye and the light, which enable him to discern clearly
and accurately all the objects with which he is conversant, and
nence by an enlightened man is meant a learned and well-in17*




198             TIlE LAWV OF NATURE.
formed man. With science and instruction a trran never wante
for resources and means of subsistence; and upon this principle
a philosopher, who had been shipwrecked, said to his companions, that were inconsolable for the loss of their wealth: "For
my part, I carry all my wealth within me."
Q. Which is the vice contrary to science?
A. It is ignorance.
Q, How does the law of nature forbid ignorance?
A. By the grievous detriments resurting from it to our existence; for the ignorant mann, who knows neither causes nor effects, commits every instant errors most pernicious to himself
and to others; he resembles a blind man groping his way at
random, and who, at every step, jostles or is jostled by every one
he meets.
Q. What difference is there between an ignoWnt and a silly
man?
A. The same difference as between him who frankly avows
his blindness and the blind man who pretends to sight; silliness
is the reality of ignorance, to which is superadded the vanity of
knowledge.
Q. Are ignorance and silliness common?
A. Yes, very common; they are the usual and general dis
tempers of mankind: more than three thousand years ago the
wisest of men said, " The number of fools is infinite;" and the
world has not changed.
Q. What is the reason of it?
A. Because much labor and time are necessary to acquire instruction, and because men, born ignorant, and averse to trouble,
find it more convenient to remain blind, and pretend to see
clear.
Q. What difference is there between a learned and a wise
man?
A. The learned knows, and the wise man practises
Q. What is prudence?
A. It is the anticipated perception, the foresight of the effects
and consequences of every action; by means of which foresight
man avoids the dangers which threaten him, while he seizes on
and creates opportunities favorable to him: he thereby provides
for his present and future safety in a certain and extensive manner, whereas the imprudent man, who calculates neither his




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                   199
steps nor his conduct, nor efforts, nor resistance, falls every instant into a thousand difficulties and dangers, which sooner or
later impair his faculties and destroy his existence.
Q. When the Gospel says, " Happy are the poor of spirit,"
does it mean the ignorant and imprudent?
A. No; for, at the, same time that it recommends the simplicity of doves, it adds the prudent cunning of serpents. By
simplicity of mind is meant uprightness, and the precept of the
Gospel is that of nature.
CHAPTER VI
ON TEMPERANCE.
Q. WHAT is temperance?
A. It is a regular use of our faculties, which makes us never
exceed in our sensations the end of nature, to preserve us; it is
the moderation of the passions.
Q. Which is the vice contrary to temperance?
A. The disorder of the passions, the avidity of all kind of enjoyments, in a word, cupidity.
Q. Which are the principal branches of temperance?
A. Sobriety, and continence or chastity.
Q. How does the law of nature prescribe sobriety?
A. By its powerful influence over our health. The sobe
man digests with comfort; he is not overpowered by the weigh
of aliments; his ideas are clear and easy; he fulfils all hir
functions properly; he conducts his business with intelligence;
his old age is exempt from infirmity; he does not spend his
money in remedies, and he enjoys, in mirth and gladness, tile
wealth which chance and his own prudence have procured him.
Thus, from one virtue alone, generous nature derives innumerable recompenses.
Q. How does it prohibit gluttony?
A. By the numerous evils that are attached to it. The glutton, oppressed with aliments, digests with anxiety; his head,




20)0           THE LAWV OF NATURE.
troubled by the fumes of indigestion, is incapable of conceiving
clear and distinct ideas; he abandons himself with violence to
the disorderly impulse of lust and anger, which impair his
health; his body becomes bloated, heavy, and unfit for labor; he endures painful and expensive distempers;. he seldom lives to be old; and his age is replete with infirmities and
sorrow.
Q. Should abstinence and fasting be considered as virtuous
actions?
A. Yes, when one has eaten too much; for then abstinence
and fasting are simple and efficacious remedies; but when the
body is in want of aliment, to refuse it any, and let it suffer from
hunger or thirst, is delirium, and a real sin against the law of
nature.
Q. How is drunkenness considered in the law of nature?
A. As a most vile and pernicious vice. The drunkard, deprived of the sense and reason given us by God, profanes the
donations of the Divinity; he debases himself to the condition
of brutes; unable even to guide his steps, he staggers and falls,
as if he were epileptic; he hurts and even risks killing himself; his debility in this state exposes him to the ridicule and
contempt of every person that sees him; he makes, in his
drunkenness, prejudicial and ruinous bargains, and injures his
fortune; he makes use of opprobrious language, which creates
him enemies and repentance; he fills his house with trouble
and sorrow, and ends by a premature death, or by a cacochymical old age.
Q. Does the law of nature interdict absolutely the use of
wine?
A. No; it only forbids the abuse; but as the transition from
the use to the abuse is easy and prompt among the generality
of men, perhaps the legislators, who have proscribed the use of
wine, have rendered a service to humanity.
Q. Does the law of nature forbid the use of certain kinds of
meat, or of certain vegetables, on particular days, during certain
seasons?
A. No; it absolutely forbids only whatever is injurious to
health; its precepts, in this respect, vaty according to persons,
and even constitute a very delicate and important science; for
the quality, the quantity, and the combination of aliments, have




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                   201
the greatest influence, not only over the momentary affections
of the soul, but even over its habitual disposition. A man is
not the same fasting as after a meal, even if he were sober. A
glass of spirituous liquor, or a dish of coffee, gives degrees of vivacity, of mobility, of disposition to anger, sadness, or gayety;
such a meat, because it lies heavy on the stomach, engenders
moroseness and melancholy; such another, because it facilitates
digestion, creates sprightliness, and an inclination to oblige and
to love. The use of vegetables, because they have little rfourishment, enfeebles the body, and gives a disposition to repose,
indolence, and ease; the use of meat, because it is full of nourishment, and of spirituous liquors, because they stimulate the
nerves, creates vivacity, uneasiness, and audacity. Now from
those habitudes of aliment result habits of constitution and of
the organs, which form afterward different kinds of temperaments, each of which is distinguished by a peculiar characteristic. And it is for this reason that, in hot countries especially,
legislators have made laws respecting regimen or food. The
ancients were taught by long experience that the dietetic science constituted a considerable part of morality; among the
Egyptians, the ancient Persians, and even among the Greeks,
at the Areopagus, important affairs were examined fasting; and
it has been remarked that, among those people, where public
affairs were discussed during the heat of meals, and the fumes
of digestion, deliberations were hasty and violent, and the results
of them frequently unreasonable, and productive of turbulence
and confusion.
CHAPTER VII.
ON CONTINENCE.
Q. DOES the law of nature prescribe continence?
A. Yes; because a moderate use of the most lively of pleasures is not only useful, but indispensable to the support of strength
and health; and because a simple calculation proves that, for




k02            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
some minutes of privation, you increase the number of your
days, both in vigor of body and of mind.
Q. How does it forbid libertinism?
A. By the numerous evils which result from it to the physical and the moral existence. He who carries it to an excess
enervates and pines away; he can no longer attend to study or
labor; he contracts idle and expensive habits, which destroy
his means of existence, his public consideration, and his credit -
his intrigues occasion continual embarrassment, cares, quarrels, and lawsuits, without mentioning the grievous deeprooted distempers, and the loss of his strength by an inward and
slow poison: the stupid dulness of his mind, by the exhaustion of the nervous system; and, in fine, a premature and infirm
old age.
Q. Does the law of nature look on that absolute chastity so
recommended in monastical institutions as a virtue?
A. No; for that chastity is of no use either to the society
that witnesses, or the individual who practises it; it is even
prejudicial to both.
First, it injures society by depriving it of population, which
is one of its principal sources of wealth and power; and as
bachelors confine all their views and affections to the term of
their lives, they have, in general, an egotism unfavorable to the
interests of society.
In the second place, it injures the individuals who practise
it, because it deprives them of a number of affections and
relations which are the springs of most domestic and social
virtues; and besides, it often happens, from circumstances of
age, regimen, or temperament, that absolute continence injures
the constitution, and causes severe diseases, because it is contrary to the physical laws on which nature has founded the
system of the reproduction of beings; and they who recommend so strongly chastity, even supposing them to be sincere,
are in contradiction with their own doctrine, which consecrates
the law of nature by the well-known commandment, 1 "Increase
and multiply."
Q. Why is chastity considered a greater virtue in women
than in men?
A. Because a want of chastity in women is attended with inconven;ences much more serious and dangerous for them and




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                    203
for society; for, without taking into account the pains and
diseases they have in common with the men, they are further
exposed to all the disadvantages and perils that precede, attend, and follow child-birth. When pregnant contrary to law,
they become an object of public scandal and contempt, and
spend the remainder of their lives in bitterness and misery.
Moreover, the expense of maintaining aLd educating their
fatherless children falls on them; which expense impoverishes them, and is every way prejudicial to their physical and
moral existence. In this situation, deprived of the freshness
and health that constitute their charms, carrying with them an
extraneous and expensive burden, they are less prized by men,
they find no solid establishment, they fall into poverty, misery,
and wretchedness, and thus drag on in sorrow their unhappy
existence.
Q. Does the law of nature extend so far as the scruples of
desires and thoughts?
A. Yes; because, in the physical laws of the human body,
thoughts and desires inflame the senses, and soon provoke to
action: now, by another law of nature in the organization of our
body those actions become mechanical wants, which recur at
certain periods of days or of weeks, so that at such a time the
want is renewed of such an action and such a secretion; if this
action and this secretion be injurious to health, the habitude of
them becomes destructive of life itself. Thus thoughts and
desires have a true and natural importance.
Q. Should modesty be considered as a virtue?
A. Yes; because modesty, inasmuch as it is a shame of certain actions, maintains the soul and body in all those habits useful to good order, and to self-preservation. The modest woman
is esteemed, courted, and established, with advantages of fortune which insure her existence, and render it agreeable to her,
while the immodest and prostitute are despised, repulsed, and
abandoned to misery and infamy.




21)4           THE LAWV OF NATURE.
CHAPTER VIII.
ON COURAGE AND ACTIVITY.
Q. ARE courage and strength of body and mind virtues in the
aw of nature?
A. Yes, and most important virtues; for they are the efficacious and indispensable means of attending to our preservation
and welfare. The courageous and strong man repulses oppression, defends his life, his liberty, and his property; by his labor
he procures himself an abundant subsistence, which he enjoys
in tranquillity and peace of mind. If he falls into misfortunes,
from which his prudence could not protect him, he supports
them with fortitude and resignation; and it is for this reason
that the ancient moralists have reckoned strength and courage
among the four principal virtues.
Q. Should weakness and cowardice be considered as vices?
A. Yes, since it is certain that they produce innumerable calamities. The weak or cowardly man lives in perpetual cares
and agonies; he undermines his health by the dread, oftentimes
ill founded, of attacks and dangers; and this dread, which is an
evil, is not a remedy; it renders him, on the contrary, the slave
of him who wishes to oppress him; and by the servitude and
debasement of all his faculties, it degrades and diminishes his
means of existence, so far as the seeing his life depend on the
will and caprice of another man.
Q. But, after what you have said on the influence of aliments, are not courage and force, as well as many other virtues,
in a great measure the effect of our physical constitution and
temperament?
A. Yes, it is true; and so far, that those qualities are transmitted by generation and blood, with the elements on which
they depend: the most reiterated and constant facts prove that,
in the breed of animals of every kind, we see certain physical
and moral qualities, attached to the individuals of those species.




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                   205
increase and decay, according to the combinations and mixtures
they make with other breeds.
Q. But, then, as our will is not sufficient to procure us those
qualities, is it a crime to be destitute of them?
A. No, it is not a crime, but a misfortune; it is what the ancients call an unlucky fatality; but even then we have it yet in
our power to acquire them; for, as soon as we know on what
physical elements such or such a quality is founded, we can
promote its growth, and accelerate its developments, by a skilful management of those elements; and in this consists the science of education, which, according as it is directed, meliorates
or degrades individuals, or the whole race, to such a pitch, as
totally to change their nature and inclinations; for which reason it is of the greatest importance to be acquainted with the
laws of nature by which those operations and changes are certainly and necessarily effected.
Q. Why do you say that activity is a virtue according to the
law of nature?
A. Because the man who works and employs his time usefully, derives from it a thousand precious advantages to his existence. If he is born poor, his labor furnishes him with subsistence; and still more so, if he is sober, continent, and prudent, for he soon acquires a competency, and enjoys the sweets
of life: his very labor gives him virtues; for, while he occupies
his body and mind, he is not affected with unruly desires, time
does not lie heavy on him, he contracts mild habits, he augments his strength and health, and attains a peaceful and happy
old age.
Q. Are idleness and sloth vices in the law of nature?
A. Yes, and the most pernicious of all vices, for they lead to
all the others. By idleness and sloth man remains ignorant, he
forgets even the science he had acquired, and falls into all the
misfortunes which accompany ignorance and folly; by idleness
and sloth man, devoured with disquietude, in order to dissipate
it, abandons himself to all the desires of his senses, which, becoming every day more inordinate, render him intemperate,
gluttonous, lascivious, enervated, cowardly, vile, and contemptible. By the certain effect of all those vices, he ruins his fortune,
consumes his health, and terminates his life in all the agonies
of sickness and of poverty.
18




206             THE  LAW  OF NATURE.
Q. From what you say, one would think that poverty was a
vice?
A. No, it is not a vice; but it is still less a virtue, for it is by
far more ready to injure than to be useful; it is even commonly
the result, or the beginning of vice, for the effect of all individual vices is to lead to indigence, and to the privation of the necessaries of life; and when a man is in want of necessaries, he
is tempted to procure them by vicious means, that is to say, by
means injurious to society. All the individual virtues tend, on
the contrary, to procure to a man an abundant subsistence;
and when he has more than he can consume, it is much easier
for him to give to others, and to practise the actions useful to
society.
Q. Do you look upon opulence as a virtue?
A. No; but still less as a vice: it is the use alone of wealth
that can be called virtuous or vicious, according as it is serviceable or prejudicial to man and to society. Wealth is an instrunlent the use and employment alone of which determine its
virtue or vice.
CHAPTER IX.
ON CLEANLINESS.
Q. WHY is cleanliness included among the virtues?
A. Because it is, in reality, one ot the most important among
them, on account of its powerful influence over the health and
preservation of the body. Cleanliness, as well in dress as in
residence, obviates the pernicious effects of the humidity, bafleful odors, and contagious exhalations, proceeding from all things
abandoned to putrefaction: cleanliness maintains free transpiration; it renews the air, refreshes the blood, and disposes even
the mind to cheerfulness.
From this, it appears that persons attentive to the cleanliness
of their bodies and habitations are, in general, more healthy,
and less subject to disease, than those who live in filth and nasti



THE LAW  OF NATURE.                    207
ness - and it is further remarked, that cleanliness carries with
it, throughout all the branches of domestic administration, habits of order and arrangement, which are the chief means and
first elements of happiness.
Q. Uncleanliness or filthiness is, therefore, a real vice?
A. Yes, as real a one as drunkenness, or as idleness, from
which in a great measure it is derived. Uncleanliness is the
second, and often the first, cause of many inconveniences, and
even of grievous disorders; it is a fact, in medicine, that it brings
on the itch, the scurf, tetters, and leprosies, as much as the use
of tainted or sour aliments; tfiat it favors the contagious influence of the plague and malignant fevers, that it even produces
them in hospitals and prisons; that it occasions rheumatisms,
by incrusting the skin with dirt, and thereby preventing transpiration; without reckoning the shameful inconvenience of being devoured by vermin, the foul appendage of misery and depravity.
Most ancient legislators, therefore, considered cleanliness,
which they called purity, as one of the essential dogmas of their
religions: it was for this reason that they expelled from society,
and even punished corporeally those who were infected with
distempers produced by uncleanliness; that they instituted and
consecrated ceremonies of ablutions, baths, baptisms, and of
purifications, even by fire and the aromatic fumes of incense,
myrrh, benjamin, etc.; so that the entire system of pollutions,
all those rites of clean and unclean things, degenerated since
into abuses and prejudices, were only founded originally on the
judicious observation, which wise and learned men had made,
of the extreme influence that cleanliness in dress and abode exercises over the health of the body, and by an immediate consequence over that of the mind and moral faculties.
Thus all the individual virtues have for their object, more or
less direct, more or less near, the preservation of the man who
practises them; and by the preservation of each man, they leau
to that of families and society, which are composed of the united sum of individuals.




208            THE LAW  OF NATURE.
CHAPTER X.
ON DOMESTIC VIRTUES.
Q. WHAT do you mean by domestic virtues?
A. I mean the practice of actions useful to a family, supposed
to live in the same house.*
Q. What are those virtues?
A. They are economy, paternal love, conjugal love, filial love,
fraternal love, and the accomplishment of the duties of master
and servant.
Q. What is economy?
A. It is, according to the most extensive meaning of the word,
the proper administration of everything that concerns the existence of the family or house; and as subsistence holds the first
rank, the word economy is confined to the employment of money
for the first wants of life.
Q. Why is economy a virtue?
A. Because the man who makes no useless expenses acquires
a superabundancy, which is true wealth, and by means of which
he procures for himself and his family everything that is really
convenient and useful; without mentioning his securing thereby
resources against accidental and unforeseen losses, so that he
and his family enjoy an agreeable and undisturbed competency,
which is the basis of human felicity.
Q. Dissipation and prodigality, therefore, are vices?
A. Yes; for by them man, ij the end, is deprived of the necessaries of life; he falls into poverty and wretchedness; and
his very friends, fearing to be obliged to restore to him what he
has spent with or for them, avoid him as a debtor does his creditor, and he remains abandoned by the whole world.
Q. What is paternal love?
A. It is the assiduous care taken by parents to make their
* Domestic is derived from the Latin.word domus, a house




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                   209
children contract the habit of every action useful to themselves
and to society.
Q. Why is paternal tenderness a virtue in parents?
A. Because parents, who rear their children in those habits,
procure for themselves, during the course of their lives, enjoyments and helps that give a sensible satisfaction at every instant,
and which assure to them, when advanced in years, supports
and consolations against the wants and calamities of all kinds
with which old age is beset
Q. Is paternal love a common virtue?
A. No: notwithstanding the ostentation made of it by parents, it is a rare virtue; they do not love their children, they
caress and spoil them; in them  they love only the agents of
their will, the instruments of their power, the trophies of their
vanity, the pastime of their idleness: it is not so much the welfare of their children that they propose to themselves, as their
submission and obedience; and if among children so many are
seen ungrateful for benefits received, it is because there are among
parents as many despotic and ignorant benefactors.
Q. Why do you say that conjugal love is a virtue?
A. Because the concord and union resulting from the love of
the married, establish in the heart of the family a multitude of
habits useful to its prosperity and preservation. The united
pair are attached to, and seldom quit their home; they superintend each particular direction of it; they attend to the education of their children; they maintain the respect and fidelity of
domestics; they prevent all disorder and dissipation; and from
the whole of their good conduct, they live in ease and consideration; while married persons, who do not love one another,
fill their house with quarrels and troubles, create dissension between their children and the servants, leaving both indiscriminately to all kinds of vicious habits; every one in turn spoils,
robs, and plunders the house: the revenues are absorbed without profit; debts accumulate; the married pair avoid each other,
or contend in lawsuits; and the whole family falls into disorder,
ruin, disgrace, and want.
Q. Is adultery an offence in the law of nature?
A. Yes; for it is attended with a number of habits injurious to the married, and to their families. The wife or hus18*




210             THE LAW  OF NATURE.
band, whose affections are estranged, neglect their house, avoid
it, and deprive it, as much as they can, of its revenues, or income, to expend them with the object of their affections; hence
arise quarrels, scandal, lawsuits, the neglect of their children
and servants, and at last the plundering and ruin of the whole
family; without reckoning that the adulterous woman commits a most grievous theft, in giving to her husband heirs of
foreign blood, who deprive his real children of their legitimate
portion.
Q. What is filial love?
A. It is, on the side of children, the practice of those actions
useful to themselves and to their parents.
Q. How does the law of nature prescribe filial love?
A. By three principal motives:1. By sentiment; for the affectionate care of parents inspires,
from the most tender age, mild habits of attachment;
2. By justice; for children owe to their parents a return and
indemnity for the cares, and even for the expenses, they have
caused them.
3. By personal interest; for, if they use them ill, they give
to their own children examples of revolt and ingratitude, which
authorize them, at a future day, to behave to themselves in a
similar manner.
Q. A re we to understand by filial love a passive and blind submission?
A. No; but a reasonable submission, founded on the knowledge of the mutual rights and duties of parents and children;
rights and duties, without the observance of which their mutual
conduct is nothing but disorder.
Q. Why is fraternal love a virtue?
A. Because the concord and union, which result from the
love of brothers, establish the strength, security, and conservation of the family: brothers united defend themselves against
all oppression, they aid one another in their wants, they help
one another in their misfortunes, and thus secure their common existence; while brothers disunited, abandoned each to
his own personal strength, fall into all the inconveniences
attendant on an insulated state and individual weakness. This
is what a certain Scythian king ingeniously expressed when,




THE LAW  OF NATURE.                   211
on his death-bed, calling his children to him, he ordered
them to break a bundle of arrows; the young men, though
strong, being unable to effect it, he took them in his turn, and
untying them, broke each of the arrows separately with his
fingers. "Behold," said he, " the effects of union; united together, you will be invincible; taken separately, you will be
broken like reeds.
Q. What are the reciprocal duties of masters and of servants?
A. They consist in the practice of the actions which are
respectively and justly useful to them; and here begin the
relations of society; for the rule and measure of those respective actions is the equilibrium  or equality between the
service and the recompense, between what the one returns
and the other gives; which is the fundamental basis of all so
ciety.
Thus all the domestic and individual virtues refer, more or
less mediately, but always with certitude, to the physical object
of the amelioration and preservation of man, and are thereby
precepts resulting from the fundamental law of nature in his
formation.
CHAPTER XI.
THE SOCIAL VIRTUES; JUSTICE.
Q. WHAT is society?
A. It is every reunion of men living together under the clauses
of an expressed or tacit contract, which has for its end their common preservation.
Q. Are the social virtues numerous?
A. Yes; they. are in as great number as the kinds of actions useful to society; but all may be reduced to one only
principle.




212            THE  LAW  OF NATURE.
Q. What is that fundamental principle?
A. It is justice, which alone comprises all the virtues of
society.
Q. Why do you say that justice is the fundamental and almost only virtue of society?
A. Because it alone embraces the practice of all the actions
useful to it; and because all the other virtues, under the denominations of charity, humanity, probity, love of one's country,
sincerity, generosity, simplicity of manners, and modesty, are
only varied forms and diversified applications of the axiom, "Do
not to another what you would not wish to be done to yourself," which is the definition of justice.
Q. How does the law of nature prescribe justice?
A. By three physical attributes, inherent in the organization
of man.
Q. What are those attributes?
A. They are equality, liberty, and property.
Q. How is equality a physical attribute of man?
A. Because all men, having equally eyes, hands, moutns
ears, and the necessity of making use of them, in order to
live, have, by this reason alone, an equal right to life, and to
the use of the aliments which maintain it; they are all equal
before God.
Q. Do you suppose that all men hear equally, see equally,
feel equally, have equal wants, and equal passions?
A. No; for it is evident, and daily demonstrated, that one
is short, and another long-sighted; that- one eats much, another little; that one has mild, another violent passions; in a
word, that one is weak in body and mind, while another is
strong in both.
Q. They are, therefore, really unequal?
A. Yes, in the development of their means, but not in the
nature and essence of those means; they are made of the same
stuff, but not in the same dimensions; nor are the weight and
value equal. Our language possesses no one word capable of
expressing the identity of nature, and the diversity of its form
and employment. It is a proportional equality; and it is for
this reason I have said, equal before God, and in the order of
nature.




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                    213
Q. How is liberty a physical attribute of man?
A. Because all men having senses sufficient for thfeir preservation-no one wanting the eye of another to see, his ear to
hear, his mouth to eat, his feet to walk-they are all, by this
very reason, constituted naturally independent and free; no man
is necessarily subjected to another, nor has he a right to domineer over him.
Q. But if a man is born strong, has he not a natural right to
master the weak man?
A. No; for it is neither a necessity for him, nor a convention
between them; it is an abusive extension of his strength; and
here an abuse is made of the word right, which in its true meaning implies justice, or reciprocal faculty.
Q. How is property a physical attribute of man?
A. Inasmuch as all men being constituted equal or similar to
one another, and consequently independent and free, each is the
absolute master, the full proprietor of his body, and of the produce of his labor.
Q. How is justice derived from these three attributes?
A. In this, that men being equal and free, owing nothing to
each other, have no right to require anything from one another,
only inasmuch as they return an equal value for it, or inasmuch
as the balance of what is given is in equilibrium with what is
returned; and it is this equality, this equilibrium, which is called
justice, equity;* that is to say, that equality and justice are but
one and the same word, the same law of nature, of which the
social virtues are only applications and derivatives.
E ~quitas, aquiibrium) equalitas, are all of the same family.




214            THE LAWV  OF NATURE.
CHAPTER XII.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL VIRTUES.
Q. EXPLAIN how the social virtues are derived from the law
of nature. How is charity or the love of one's neighbor a precept and application of it?
A. By reason of equality and reciprocity; for, when we injure another, we give him a right to injure us in return: thus,
by attacking the existence of our neighbor, we endanger our
own, from the effect of reciprocity; on the other hand, by doing
good to others, we have room and right to expect an equivalen
exchange; and such is the character of all the social virtues,
that they are useful to the man who practises them, by the right
of reciprocity which they give him over those who have benefited
by them.
Q. Charity is then nothing but justice?
A. No, it is only justice; with this slight difference, that
strict justice confines itself to saying, Do not to another the
harm you would not wish he should do to you; and that charity, or the love of one's neighbor, extends so far as to say, Do to
another the good which you would wish to receive from him.
Thus, when the Gospel said that this precept contained the
whole of the law and the prophets, it announced nothing more
than the precept of the law of nature.
Q. Does it enjoin forgiveness of injuries?
A. Yes, inasmuch as that forgiveness is consistent with selfpreservation.
Q. Does it prescribe to us, after having received a blow on
one cheek, to hold out the other?
A. No; for it is, in the first place, contrary to the precept of
loving our neighbors as ourselves, since thereby we should
love, more than ourselves, him who makes an attack on our
preservation. Secondly, such a precept, in its literal sense, encourages the wicked to oppression and injustice: the law of




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                   "15
nature has been more wise in prescribing a calculated proportion of courage and moderation, which induces us to forget a
first or unpremeditated injury, but which punishes every act
tending to oppression.
Q. Does the law of nature prescribe to do good to others beyond the bounds of reason and measure?
A. No; for it is a sure way of leading them to ingratitude.
Such is the force of sentiment and injustice implanted in the
heart of man, that he is not even grateful for benefits conferred
without discretion. There is one only measure with them, and
that is to be just.
Q. Is almsgiving a virtuous action?
A. Yes, when it is practised according to the rule first mentioned; without which it degenerates into imprudence and vice,
inasmuch as it encourages laziness, which is hurtful to the beggar and to society; no one has a right to partake of the property
and fruits of another's labor, without rendering an equivalent
of his own industry.
Q. Does the law of nature consider as virtues faith and hope,
which are often joined with charity?
A. No; for they are ideas without reality; and if any effects
result from them, they turn rather to the profit of those who
have not those ideas, than of those who have them; so that faith
and hope may be called the virtues of dupes for the benefit of
knaves.
Q. Does the law of nature prescribe probity?
A. Yes; for probity is nothing more than respect for one's
own rights in those of another; a respect founded 6n a prudent
and well-combined calculation of our interests compared to those
of others.
Q. But does not this calculation, which embraces the complicated interests and rights of the social state, require an enlightened understanding and knowledge, which make it a difficult science?
A. Yes, and a science so much the more delicate as the honest man prono Inces in his own cause.
Q. Probity, therefore, is a sign of extension and justice in
he mind?
A. Yes; for an honest man almost always neglects a present




216             THE LAW  OF NATURE.
interest, in order not to destroy a future one; whereas the knave
loes the contrary, and loses a great future interest for a present
smaller one.
Q. Improbity, therefore, is a sign of false judgment and a narrow mind?
A. Yes; and rogues may be defined ignorant and silly calculators; for they do not understand their true interest, and they
pretend to cunning: nevertheless, their cunning only ends in
making known what they are —in losing all confidence and esteem, and the good services resulting from them for their physical and social existence. They neither live in peace with others, nor with themselves; and incessantly menaced by their
conscience and their enemies, they enjoy no other real happiness but that of not being hanged.
Q. Does the law of nature forbid robbery?
A. Yes; for the man who robs another gives him a right to
rob him; from that moment there is no security in his property,
nor in his means of preservation: thus, in injuring others, he,
by a counterblow, injures himself.
Q. Does it interdict even an inclination to rob?
A. Yes; for that inclination leads naturally to action; and it
is for this reason that envy is considered a sin.
Q. How does it forbid murder?
A. By the most powerful motives of self-preservation; for,
first, the man who attacks exposes himself to the risk of being
killed, by the right of defence; secondly, if he kills, he gives to
the relations and friends of the deceased, and to society at large.
an equal right of killing him; so that his life is no longer in
safety.
Q. How can we, by the law of nature, repair the evil we have
done?
A. By rendering a proportionate good to those whom we
have injured?
Q. Does it allow us to repair it by prayers, vows, offerings to
God, fasting, and mortifications?
A. No; for all those things are foreign to the action we wish
to repair; they neither restore the ox to him from whom it has
been stolen, honor to him whom we have deprived of it, nor life
to him from whom it has been taken away; consequently they




THE LAWV OF NATURE.                   217
miss the end of justice; they are only perverse contracts, by
which a man sells to another goods which do not belong to
him: they are a real depravation of morality, inasmuch as they
embolden to commit crimes, through the hope of expiating
them; wherefore they have been the real cause of all the evils
by which the people, among whom those expiatory practices
were used, have been continually tormented.
Q. Does the law of nature order sincerity?
A. Yes; for lying, perfidy, and perjury, create distrust, quarrels, hatred, revenge, and a crowd of evils among men, which
tend to their common destruction; while sincerity and fidelity
establish confidence, concord, and peace, besides the infinite
good resulting,om such a state of things to society.
Q. Does it prescribe mildness and modesty?
A. Yes; for harshness and obduracy, by alienating from us
the' hearts of other men, give them an inclination to hurt us;
ostentation and vanity, by wounding their self-love and jealousy
occasion us to miss the end of a real utility.
Q. Does it prescribe humility as a virtue?
A. No; for it is a propensity in the human heart to despise
secretly everything that presents to it the idea of weakness; and
self-debasement encourages pride and oppression in others; the
balance must be kept in equipoise.
Q. You have reckoned simplicity of manners among the social virtues; what do you understand by that word?
A. I mean the restricting our wants and desires to what is
truly useful to the existence of the citizen and his family; that
is to say, the man of simple manners has but few wants, and
lives content with a little.
Q. How is this virtue prescribed to us?
A. By the numerous advantages which the practice of it pro
cures to the individual and to society; for the man whose w~ants
are few, is free at once from a crowd of cares, perplexities, and
labors; he avoids many quarrels and contests arising from avidity and a desire of gain; he spares himself the anxiety of atnbition. the inquietudes of possession, and the uneasiness of losses;
finding superfluity everywhere, he is the real rich man; always
content with what he has, he is happy at little expense; and
other men, not fearing any competition from him, leave him in
19




218            THE LAWV OF NATURE.
quiet, and are disposed to render him the services.he should
stand in need of.
And if this virtue of simplicity extends to a whole people,
they insure to themselves abundance; rich in everything they
do not consume, they acquire immense means of exchange and
commerce; they work, fabricate, and sell at a lower price than
others, and attain to all kinds of prosperity, both at home and
abroad.
Q. What is the vice contrary to this virtue?
A. It is cupidity and luxury.
Q. Is luxury a vice in the individual and in society?
A. Yes; and to that degree that it may be said to include all
the others; for the man who stands in need of many things,
imposes thereby on himself all the anxiety, and submits to all
the means, just or unjust, of acquiring them. Does he possess
an enjoyment, he covets another; and in the bosom of superfluity, he is never rich; a commodious dwelling is not sufficient
for him, he must have a beautiful hotel; not content with a
plenteous table, he must have rare and costly viands; he must
have splendid furniture, expensive clothes, a train of attendants,
horses, carriages, women, theatrical representations, and games.
Now, to supply so many expenses, much money must be had;
and he looks on every method of procuring it as good and even
necessary: at first he borrows, afterward he steals, robs, plunders, turns bankrupt, is at war with every one, ruins, and is ruined.
Should a nation be involved in luxury, it occasions on a larger
scale the same devastations; by reason that it consumes its entire produce, it finds itself poor even with abundance; it has
nothing to sell to foreigners; its manufactures are carried on at
a great expense, and are sold too dear; it becomes tributary for
everything it imports; it attacks externally its consideration,
power, strength, and means of defence and preservation; while
internally it undermines and falls into the dissolution of its members. All its citizens being covetous of enjoyments, are engaged in a perpetual struggle to obtain them; all injure, or are
near injuring themselves: and hence arise those habits and actions of usurpation, which constitute what is denominated
moral corruption, intestine war between citizen and citizen.
From luxury arises avidity, from avidity, invasion by violence




THE  LAW  OF NATURE.                   219
mnd perfidy; from luxury arises the iniquity of the judge, the
venality of the witness, the improbity of the husband, the pros
titution of the wife, the obduracy of parents, the ingratitude of
children, the avarice of the master, the dishonesty of the ser
vrant, the dilapidation of the administrator, the perversity of the
legislator, lying, perfidy, perjury, assassination, and all the disorders of the social state; so that it was with a profound sense
of truth, that ancient moralists have laid the basis of the social
virtues on simplicity of manners, restriction of wants, and con
tentment with a little; and a sure way of knowing the extent
of a man's virtues and vices is, to find out if his expenses are
proportionate to his fortune, and calculate, from his want of
money, his probity, his integrity in fulfilling his engagements,
his devotion to the public weal, and his sincere or pretended love
of his country.
Q. What do you mean by the word country?
A. I mean the community of citizens who, united by frater..
nal sentiments, and reciprocal wants, make of their respective
strength one common force, the reaction of which on each of
them assumes the preservative and beneficent character of paternity. In society, citizens form a bank of interest; in our
country we form a family of endearing attachments; it is charity, the love of one's neighbor extended to a whole nation. Now,
as charity can not be separated from justice, no member of the
family can pretend to the enjoyment of its advantages, except
in proportion to his labor; if he consumes more than it produces, he necessarily encroaches on his fellow-citizens; and it is
only by consuming less than what he produces or possesses,
that he can acquire the means of making sacrifices and being
generous.
Q. What do you conclude from all this?
A. I conclude from it. that all the social virtues are only the
habitude of actions useful to society and to the individual who
practises them;
That they all refer to the physical object of man's preservation;
That nature having implanted in us the want of that preservation, has made a law to us of all its consequences, and a crime
of everything that deviates from it;




's20'THE  LAWr  OF NATURE.
Thlat we carry in us the seed of every virtue, and of every
perfection;
That it only requires to be developed;
That we are only happy inasmuch as we observe the rules
established by nature for the end, of our preservation;
And that all wisdom, all perfection, all law, all virtue, all phi.
losophy, consist in the practice of these axioms founded on our
own organization:Preserve thyself;
Instruct thyself;
Moderate thyself;
Live for thy fellow-citizens, that they may live for thee